iPad and the Marketing of Technology

The volume of discussion on this iPad launch is astonishing. What really blows me away and took me by surprise – was how the small anti-Flash world is trying to use this as a “Flash must die” podium. Apparently Steve Jobs is joining in, calling Adobe ‘Lazy’ and Google ‘evil’. You know who else used a scapegoat in vain? Hitler! TOTALLY kidding – not going Godwin on ya; just trying to lighten up the mood.

In all seriousness, this flash-bashing is nothing new and I believe stems from a lot of JavaScript devs who made a button once in the Flash IDE and think they understand the Platform, however, they were too uninspired or simply involved in learning OO JavaScript to care to really understand how to unleash the full potential of Flash. They (the 100 or so I know) think of Flash in large part as extra fluff to ads and video, period. They do not consider things like the Avatar AIR app, Google Finance, Mint.com’s charts, interactive video, interactive television, streaming media with DRM and server side multi-bitrate encoding etc..

I think it’s a good time for Adobe to consider why today’s youthful developers do not see Flash as a Platform and something worth learning. It is evident many AJAX devs young and old are waiting it out; giving Flash 1-5 years to “fall off the planet and die”. Right or wrong, they blame it for browser crashes, the bane of all sluggishness on the Web, and it has indeed become a scapegoat. The validity of these accusations is mostly hogwash because if any app is designed poorly enough it will crash any browser. Lord knows I wish I had a dime for every time my Browser crashed, with no Flash running, just because I had Firebug installed and not even using it! If people think no Flash inherently equals a more stable browser, they are delusional. But this doesn’t diminish the fact that Adobe might need a refresher course on how to make their consumer products a little more palatable to new developers and to corporations– for without getting this right, history has shown a Brand can indeed “fall off the Earth” and “hogwash” can turn into a raging river of abyss. Anyone still drive an Olds? Anyone use a DEC computer? The word “Flash” is pretty old now and connotes many distorted meanings amongst devs.

Nonetheless, the iPad launch really did get me thinking about Flash’s future. No, I do not think it will fall off the face of the Earth. The fanboys can scream as loud as they wish; nobody hears them except other developers. However, since many programmers, especially at the top 1000 dot coms and ad agencies, use Macs to build things that run on Windows, and because they get to make extremely important IT decisions, we see less and less Flash today. Flash’s under-performance on OSX does not help the situation or bode well for Flash player’s continued success. I do not have the answer. Change the name “Flash” to something else? Not now, but perhaps if/when Adobe begins incorporating changes to Dreamweaver and Flash to support “HTML5”, it would be a chance for some kind of rebranding.

I’m sure there are many who would read this and say “What rock have you been under dude? Wake up, Flash IS dying and the writing has been on your Facebook Wall for two years!” Well, it is obvious that Flash is on its way out - in Appleland, a magical place filled with rabid loyalists making “phenomenal magical apps” that “make email fun and cool”. A part of me wants to barf but there’s a more practical and analytical side of me that thinks what Apple did was brilliant, albeit protectionist, and considering the circumstance under which this product was built, may have been one of the most insightful, savvy, selfish business decision ever made. Why? The iPad solidifies Apple’s 1-10% market share – a chunk they are admittedly happy owning for the foreseeable future – and potentially ushering in a “New World” paradigm, answering the question of “What comes next in computing?” . Whether that’s true is yet to be seen. I think he’s not giving our future computer users enough credit for knowing how to keep organized. But after all, is this not Steve Jobs’ number one priority as a CEO of a public company? This was his digital opus. He owed his shareholders a grand finale after his few SNAFUs with the SEC and the Board, and he delivered, big time. In one fell swoop of a product launch they staved off Google from permeating much further into its bread and butter base (this might backfire when the SEO aurora borealis strikes the app store), kept Microsoft out of their hair, Amazon and Kindle are at bay, Adobe is moot, and basically created a paradigm whereby Apple can likely only grow – not shrink, as a result of another Company’s triumphing innovations. Considering they pulled this together during the worst economic climate since 1939, and with Steve Jobs' illness, is exceedingly admirable.

I recall a quote from Jobs, saying this would be the most important product launch he’s ever worked on. At first, I almost dismissed this as consumer product hyperbole. Now that the dust is settling, I see why he was serious. Steve Jobs’ number one priority is to Apple the Company and its shareholders who saw the stock go from $200 a share to $82 and change. Somewhere way down the line is what he personally feels about the Web and the direction it should or shouldn’t take (semantic, open-standards, Flash, HTML5 etc…) The iPad is about Apple, the Company’s business plan. I would guess Steve Jobs likes Flash as a technology. I mean seriously - he pointed out an animated piece of paper unfolding in his Keynote, looked toward the audience and said “look at that, isn’t that cool?!” So, surely he must have had a similar reaction seven years ago when Flashers were doing that with AS1 and timeline masks.

Brands are not tangible. They are not something you can hold. They are intellectual property – how a consumer thinks and feels about your product or service. Apple masters this but Adobe needs help. Not that marketing alone would cure this anti-flash backlash…but it’s something worth thinking about.

Apple and its shareholders are safe now. They have a very solid, elegant, nearly perfect computing platform that consumers and developers, including me, will surely love. The iPhone has changed my life and perhaps yours too. It made the world’s information sitting in the palm of my hand USEABLE in a way never before, and that I had only dreamt about watching Star Trek or 2001Space Odyssey. I’m still in awe that these pipe dreams are now real and I applaud and thank all the tech giants out there for making this possible.

But the iPad is not revolutionary and its competition is already built and soon to hit store shelves in droves. This is very unlike the iPhone launch whereby Apple got a two year head start. Today they have no head start. I know I can and will continue to develop with the Flash Platform and target about a trillion devices for the foreseeable future until HTML5’s wrinkles are ironed out. It is my hope that Adobe finds a way to inspire the youth to want to use their technology and show Corporations how their solutions can save money. Not nickels and dimes: potentially billions in unnecessary cross-browser testing, hacking, QA’ing etc…Along with the freedom of creative expression with ‘dumb’ tools drawing, or programmatic nirvana – money saved is icing on the cake and should be more of a selling point along with ubiquity.

If I were one of these high-profile code monkey Flash bashers, I would watch who you piss off and maybe try to be less cynical and more thankful. If it were not for Flash you might not be working today. And trust me, when HTML5 is widely adopted, stable, and a major company needs to hire an agency or freelancer with finely tuned interactive design, UX, UI, animation, RIA, BT, Reporting, Gaming/3D, p2p Bluetooth viral experiences – we’ll be right there; leapfrogging you to the signed Contract. So, let’s all agree to disagree, move on and have fun!