Do you seriously believe they would do this? They may want to, and are doing so on their new platform. But I don't think Apple is that stupid to shoot themselves in the foot with their computing platform. I accepted it on my mobile phone due to the advantages the iPhone has had, and I knew what it would mean when I bought the device. If they do the same on the computers though, I'd dump the platform along with a good portion of the rest of their users.


Adobe actually didn't consider Flash important until they found themselves on the losing side of the web battle against Macromedia. Adobe played a big part in trying to bring things like SVG to the web, but lacked the power to do so. Microsoft was asleep at the wheel after illegally capturing the majority of the web browser market, and showed no interest in pushing it forward. Adobe's answer was to buy Macromedia and have a change of heart about the best way to advance the web, helping to move the line back towards the proprietary and closed side. Apple may not be a saint here, but neither is Adobe.

As far as Apple's rejection of Flash, it wasn't arbitrary. They were clear from day one that no web plugins would be accepted on the platform. No Flash, no Shockwave, no Silverlight, no Quake Live plugin and so on. The Google Voice "not rejected but not accepted" issue was arbitrary.


This actually proves Job's point quite well too. iTunes feels like a slow, crappy piece of software on Windows. And it does on OS X as well, because it's hindered by trying to stay compatible on both platforms instead of taking advantage of newer improvements on both sides. iTunes for me on a Mac Pro can't handle playing back a video and an iPhone being connected. Quicktime X has no problems playing back many videos, while transcoding others.