NEW YORK — For iPhone users who’ve been wondering whether their devices will support Flash technology for Web video and games any time soon, the answer is finally here, straight from Steve Jobs: no.
In a detailed offensive against the technology owned by Adobe Systems Inc., Apple’s chief executive wrote Thursday that Flash has too many bugs, drains batteries too quickly and is too oriented to personal computers to work on the iPhone and iPad.
This is not the first time Jobs has publicly criticized Flash, but the statement was his clearest and most definitive — and longest — on the subject.
In his 1,685-word “Thoughts on Flash,” Jobs laid out his reasons for excluding Flash — the most widely used vehicle for videos and games on the Internet — from Apple’s hand-held devices. He cited “reliability, security and performance” and the fact that Flash was designed “for PCs using mice, not for touch screens using fingers.”
But he said the most important reason is that Flash puts a third party between Apple and software developers. In other words, developers can take advantage of improvements from Apple only if Adobe upgrades its own software, Jobs wrote.
