Last weekend I had to answer many questions about Mr. Jobs "Thoughts on Flash".
“What is your serious opinion?”
This thought are something I want to share with you. First I find Mr. Jobs words hypocritical for many reasons. Just to make it short:

“Adopting technologies quickly”
Apple just shipped a year ago the finder in cocoa and other programs are still running on carbon e.g. Final Cut. Dear Apple why did this take so long?
Itunes on Windows is crap. Why does apple not take advantage of the new features of Windows? Apple changed iPhone SDK Agreement so that applications should take advantage of Iphone OS so why they don’t take advantage of new Windows?

“open”
I think all this open bla bla should mask that H.264 is not open! Microsoft & Apple, both members of MPEG-LA, are going to make money with this video codec because it is proprietary and patented. So in Apple’s eyes if the specification of software is free than we can call this open standard? Fine, than Flash is an open standard too.
However, Apple sucks – this is something I was saying for years now. I did not make many friends with this statement at last Adobe MAX. Now I’m looking forward to meet those people and I’m curious if they are still so proud of using MAC Book Pro.

But what is the essence of this discussion?

A few years ago everyone was claiming that software inside the browser is the next BIG THING e.g. Gmail. Now I have the feeling the trend is going more and more towards apps. People are starting to use Apps for things, which could run inside the browser.Not only because of new ways of interaction e.g. Multitouch…

This shows that something is wrong with the web and with content that runs inside the browser. It doesn’t matter if HTML or Flash. And we should keep in mind that apps are not “open”.
I think the Web is loosing sexiness, web apps like Gmail etc. are far away to offer features like mobile/desktop apps do. (Non web apps are also often much faster).
This leak of features is something that the Browser must close. Mozilla and Chrome are on the right way. They must give Developer the option to do more than only W3C “adaption”. But I also know this is not simple…..

I met yesterday a good friend who has a c level position. And he asked me if I would still recommend developing an API for their business. Sure you should! Because it give’s you the option to deliver your content anywhere (Apps or Web) and to track it.  This flexibility is something important for your business……..

What about Flash?

Flash has currently around 98% penetration thus it is not dead! Also HTML5 Browser propagation is poor at the moment. (I still have lots of customers & their consumers that use IE6) I don’t know currently when Google will roll-out VP8 on Youtube. This could change the game. Honestly, I never liked Flash. Not because of its technology. I don’t like flash because it’s mostly misused.