Google, Apple, Flash and the future of mobile content

Although obscure and decidedly tech-y, the brewing battle over support for Adobe's Flash technology in mobile serves to highlight two divergent schools of thought over the future of the mobile content sector.

On one side is market champ Apple, which arguably revolutionized the wireless industry with its iPhone and App Store. The company has made a major dent in the global tech consciousness, largely thanks to the swelling ranks of developers pumping hundreds of thousands of iPhone apps into Apple's vaunted iTunes app storefront.

On the other side is Google, which arguably revolutionized the market for Internet searching and is parlaying that dominant position into adjacent markets such as wireless. So far, Google has buoyed the likes of Motorola and others with Android, a platform Google hopes will push its digital wares (and tagalong advertisers) from the laptop and into the back pockets of savvy smartphoners.

Google and Apple have increasingly found themselves at odds in a number of areas. Now, the two have taken opposite sides on support for Flash technology in mobile--and their division helps illuminate their respective positions on the future of mobile content.

But first, some background: Flash allows desktop Web browsers like Internet Explorer and Firefox to display animations and graphics. Smartphones, though, largely have been left out of the Flash loop due to the technology's processing requirements. To address the situation, Adobe announced in October Flash Player 10.1, which is to bring Flash to Windows Mobile, webOS, BlackBerry, Symbian, Android--and not iPhone.

"Adobe needs full support from Apple beyond what is available through the SDK to enable Web browsing of Flash content on the iPhone," Adobe wrote when I asked them about the device. "While we have been working hard to make the browser plug-in available, without increased co-operation from Apple, it will not be possible. Adobe is therefore focusing our development work on the major smartphone platforms that are working with us to deliver the most innovative and complete web browsing experience."

To be fair, I also asked Apple why it apparently does not plan to support Flash technology on the iPhone. I called and emailed several members of the Apple PR team about it. I did not receive a response from any of them (which is Apple's modus operandi, it seems)--which makes me wonder why Apple even has a PR department to begin with. I mean, good grief.

Anyway, back to the issue: Apple won't support mobile Flash, while Android (and others) will. Why? I asked several industry analysts, and the response was unanimous: Apple wants developers to write apps for the iPhone, not Flash. Flash is billed as a "runtime," which means it can power stuff like games and utilities. If the iPhone ran Flash, there would be little reason for developers to write for the iPhone specifically if they could instead write in Flash and have that app run on iPhone as well as Android, BlackBerry and other supported platforms.

"Apple wants the developers locked into their platform," contends Rob Enderle of the Enderle Group. "It's totally a strategic decision on Apple's part," concurs IDC's Will Stofega.

And that Flash-driven, browser-based approach to apps plays perfectly into Google's worldview. The company almost exclusively offers services--and makes money--via Internet browsers. Indeed, Google decided to turn its own browser, Chrome, into a full-blown operating system for netbooks--Chrome OS--thereby highlighting the company's hope to move personal computing into the cloud (Google-controlled, that is).

Of course, Google's worldview clashes with that of Apple. Apple makes money on hardware, so it has a vested interest in keeping users tied into the gadgets it produces. A Google view of the world sees hardware as a commodity and a portal into Web services.

Naturally, both Apple and Google hope their view of the mobile content world prevails. --Mike