Steve Jobs on lost iPhone 4G / HD and Flash. D: All Things Digital

Steve Jobs iPhone 4G HD D8

Steve Jobs iPhone 4G HD D8

Any chance you get to look into the mind of a genius and luminary like Steve Jobs is a rare and welcomed opportunity. Last night at the D8 conference we got such an opportunity. Although the inner thoughts of the captain of Apple are a little more common with Steve’s newfound willingness to answer e-mail, Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher’s interview ranged over a wide variety of topics. It was interesting to get his take on many of the stories and controversies that have surrounded his company in the last 12 months.

During the D8 interview Steve Jobs was questioned about the lost iPhone 4G / HD and why Apple doesn’t support flash in their mobile devices.

The Lost iPhone 4G / HD prototype – Jobs downplayed the ongoing drama surrounding the loss/theft, revelation, and recovery of the iPhone prototype; likening it to some kind of potboiler mystery. “It’s a great story…it’s got theft, buying stolen property, extortion. Probably sex in there somewhere…someone should make a movie out of this.” While he couldn’t speak at length on the particulars of the case due to the ongoing legal investigation, Jobs makes it clear what he thinks of the type of journalism that brought the next generation iPhone out in the open. Talking later about the iPad and journalism, he laments our descent into a “nation of bloggers” and says “We need editorial oversight now more than ever.”

Flash – We’ve heard the party line on Flash before and Steve reiterated it at the interview. Flash is an old technology in the twilight of its usefulness he said. Likening the product life cycle to seasons, Jobs intimated that Adobe’s content technology was certainly in the winter of its life. He mentioned that Apple asked Adobe to show them something better than Flash but Adobe never produced it. He feels that although there are holes in some sites where Flash doesn’t play on the iPad and iPhone, those holes are being plugged as content providers and sites switch from Flash to open standards like HTML 5 and H.264. He didn’t intend to start a war with Flash, only that Apple made a technology decision based on what they thought was the best for the consumer and “So far they’re liking the iPad…we’re selling one every three seconds.”

Did Jobs say anything new to you or just reiterate what you already knew? Let us know your thoughts on these questions.

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3 Comments on “Steve Jobs on lost iPhone 4G / HD and Flash. D: All Things Digital”

  1. Scott R.

    Flash being in the Winter of it's life is not a very good excuse for not having it unless you are proposing an alternative to it. I personally believe it is just so that they (Apple) do not have to worry about Flash apps competing with their App Store that I am sure makes them hundreds of millions if not billions a year.

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