Hacker News Reader

Comment by barista | Hacker News Reader

I think flash is just a stopgap until something faster and native comes from android. Both MSFT and AAPL are not supporting it on their mobile platform. Android only supports it because they don't have any other options.

View on HN

Android already supports Theora, WebM, and H.264 -- what do you feel its native support is lacking?

Manufacturers put Flash on tablets/phones as mindless "differentiation", an extra checkbox to wave in front of consumers. There's no technical reason for Android to support Flash, and (as this article demonstrates) numerous good reasons not to.

Forgetting that there is a ton of popular flash content on the web? Outside the developer community, people don't care about how the content they're interested in is delivered, they just want access. It isn't hard to criticize the implementation of flash on mobiles, but there are obviously strong arguments for including it on a platform. It's clearly a LOT more than an 'extra checkbox'.

Right. Thanks to flash compatibility on my phone, I can watch/listen to a lot of content that cannot be rendered on an iDevice. That's a meaningful differentiator.

Huh? As far as "native" goes, the Android browser is just as fast as, or faster than, the iPhone's. And Adobe has already confirmed Flash for Windows Phone 7.

Would you elaborate on Android not having any other options?

Not sure what you mean - what does WM7 or iOS have that Android doesn't? Native apps are just as capable on any platform.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com