Why the Apple ipad does not support Flash

Foreign media today published an article by editor Charlie Scoos (Charlie stross), analyzing the trend of "cloud computing" and why Apple's ipad does not support Flash.

The emergence of new trends

This week, there were several interesting news in the scientific and technological community.

First, Apple CEO Steve Jobs published an open letter explaining why Iphone/ipad did not support Flash, making the debate between Apple and Adobe increasingly white-hot.

Second, HP will buy palm, apparently to get the webOS operating system. It is rumored that HP will develop a series of webOS based tablet computers to fight the ipad. Meanwhile, as Microsoft canceled The Courier Tablet program, HP will also cancel the Windows 7 Tablet PC.

Third, tech blog Gizmodo.com published an article discussing Apple's "Global Loyal Team", which is responsible for tracking leaks and blocking the spread of confidential information.

It is no exaggeration to say that Apple's security policy is one of the strictest in the business, even comparable to that of military agencies. Mr. Jobs's strict secrecy about the ipad's technology, and the iphone leaks that have caught the eye of rivals, are worth thinking about.

I think jobs is betting on Apple's future in new markets, and the company, which is worth more than 200 billion dollars, will either win or die. HP was aware of the crisis, but it was two or three years late. Microsoft is stuck in the mire, unaware that the ecosystem it relies on will be completely subverted.

In the middle of the 90, we realized that the Internet is the future of computers. As the bandwidth of the network increases, we do not have to store all the data in the hard disk: data and interaction can follow us to the wider world. Dial-up Internet has facilitated the development of the. com 1.0, Broadband Internet has promoted the development of the. COM 2.0, and now we are starting to look forward to. com 3.0. With 4G mobile technology (LTE or WiMAX), users will be able to surf the internet anytime and anywhere via WiFi. The WiFi and 4G protocols will provide your mobile device with 50-150m wireless internet speed per second. At present, 3G network can reach 6Mbps, equivalent to about 2000 years of wired broadband. A company in Tokyo has started offering home broadband based on WiMAX, which is equivalent to 2005 of wired broadband.

It is often discussed that increasing the speed of Internet is very expensive. America's Internet connection is one of the worst in the developed world, as its wired network is installed earlier, and these immature infrastructures start to boost business, but then become an obstacle. However, switching to high-speed wireless networks is a good choice. After all, it is much easier to install an optical cable for a relay station than to install a network cable on a home.

The disappearance of PC industry and the rise of cloud computing

The PC's performance is increasing, but its price is decreasing at 50% per decade. Typically, netbooks and desktops have less than 10% profit margins. Apple's focus on the high-end market has been less impacted. If Apple is a car company, it's a Mercedes, a BMW, a Porsche and a Jaguar. At the moment, the PC market at every price has become saturated, meaning that potential consumers already have computers. Although markets in developing countries are still developing, the profits of these markets are negligible because of low prices.

Wireless broadband is emerging, and institutions and individuals will be storing more data in "cloud" devices. The software will be rendered in the form of services that users can receive through their mobile phones, laptops, tablets, televisions, and even chips implanted in the brain. With the sharp drop in hardware profits, this model can continue to generate profits. At the same time, consumers do not have to worry about hard disk management, backup and anti-virus.

The iphone and ipad are fundamentally different from previous devices, just as Macintosh computers have revolutionized the command-and-operate computers. With the decline of the PC industry, Apple hopes to lead the new trend through these products.

Apple App Store and the itunes store told jobs that it was important to have a sales channel. Even if a machine is provided for free, he can still charge for data access while maintaining high quality, shutting out malware and defeating rivals. The perfect application store can become the drawer of consumer's daily life, can also be used to promote the corresponding operating system. Operating systems, hardware platforms, and applications form an ecosystem.

Apple is trying to take steps to bring the new ecosystem to maturity within five years, a system that competes with the Macintosh system, which has developed for 26 years. Apple expects that within five years, cloud computing will completely defeat the current PC industry. If Apple fails to complete the transition by 2015, it will become a dispensable, low-margin device maker.

There are many signs of such a transformation. This year, Apple's WWDC developer Conference's Apple Design award will be for iphone and ipad apps, excluding Mac apps.

At present, Apple will overcome all difficulties to promote the development of the application store. "Flash is a cross-platform development tool," Jobs said. Adobe's goal is to help developers develop the best cross-platform applications, not iphone, ipod and ipad apps. "Jobs didn't want Adobe's application to compete with its own business," he said. His long-term goal is to turn Apple from a hardware company that owns the software business into a cloud-computing company with a hardware business-like Google. If Apple joins the vicious competition in the PC industry, it is doomed to fail.

The digital industry after five years

Wireless network technologies such as LTE and WiMAX will be widely used. We will see the 4G handheld without line, which is similar to MiFi, but with a speed of 50-100m per second. The internet will become increasingly mobile. For people over the age of 40-45, the diagonal 7-8-centimeter screen looks uncomfortable, so they can choose a tablet computer.

50M broadband anytime and anywhere means that you do not have to store the data on your local hard drive, but simply store it on a remote server and get it anytime.

For data centers that are suitable for cloud computing, Apple has a huge investment. The ITunes 10 is said to be a cloud service that allows users to log on to any device in order to access music, video and other services. Users can use MobileMe to send and receive mail and use iwork.com to manage Office documents.

By 2015, the ipad will also change. The ipad will have a 7-inch small screen model and a larger desktop model. Most importantly, the device will use the new processor: upgraded Atom or Cortex A9 class arm--dual core, 2GHz frequency, faster speed, and higher energy efficiency. In the context of the decline of the PC industry, the most desirable is the enormous wealth that Apple's ecosystem will create, and the companies that join the ecosystem will benefit.

If you use the ipad in 2015, you won't need home broadband, and you can get data anytime, anywhere. There is no need to back up the files, because the data is stored in Apple's cloud devices. There is no need to upgrade the software because everything is done automatically in the background. Worms, viruses, and malware will no longer exist. In order to use these services, users may need to pay a higher price. In addition, users need not worry that the virus will damage the computer system because their computers are not in the traditional sense of the computer. At the same time, users can select different devices to access their own data.

That explains why Apple is so mad about the iphone leaks that HP is abandoning its Windows 7 tablet and buying a dismal business, and why companies are all afraid of Google: The PC revolution is coming to an end, and every company must seek new strategies to avoid being eliminated.