Last week Apple unveiled the newly anticipated iPad, boasting the “best way to experience the Web”. Sadly, just as IPhone and IPod touch, iPad does not have support for Adobe Flash. This means that you your Web experience won’t be as “revolutionary” as Apple promises. In fact, it will be somewhat incomplete.
Many of today’s websites utilize Flash to deliver rich interactive content from visualization software, to presentations, games, product demos, and videos. Some websites are built entirely in Flash. In fact, Flash has grown so popular for interactive content delivery that Intechnic does Flash programming for one website out of four-five that we build.
Unfortunately, iPad users won’t be able to enjoy Flash as part of their Web experience. Apart for the built-in support for Youtube, it just won’t work. Apple blames Flash’s developer Adobe for dragging their feet on Flash support for IPhones and now IPad. However, some believe that this move is intentional as Apple is pushing support of HTML5, which allows for video to play natively without need for Flash.
The new IPad has some other disappointments as well. It has no video output, no USB ports, resolution smaller than some netbooks! Some even compare it to HP TC 1100, released SEVEN (!) years ago (see the comparison chart). This brings me to my question: will Apple’s iPad really revolutionize the Web?
