Adobe Flash Developer: Fundamental Design of Flash Not Suitable For TouchScreen
Morgan Adams, a full-time Flash developer and interactive content developer, describes on Roughly Drafted Magazine on why the Apple iPad, iPhone, & iPod touch cannot use Adobe flash.
Problem with Fundamental Design of Flash: Not Made for Touchscreen
“Current Flash sites could never be made work well on any touchscreen device, and this cannot be solved by Apple, Adobe, or magical new hardware.” Morgan Adams states. “That’s not because of slow mobile performance, battery drain or crashes. It’s because of the hover or mouseover problem.”
Various interaction with flash content is described by Adams. However “none of these things can work right with a finger (or traditional stylus) because on a touchscreen, pointing at something without clicking isn’t a mouseover.”
Potential Touchscreen Mouseover “Solutions”
Morgan Adams does offer some solutions.
A) All flash apps are re-coded for touchscreen, as many websites offer mobile-optimized version of the web site.
B) Gestures to simulate mouseover.
C) Make clicking complex, such s double tap.
D) Visible mouse pointer that does not interact with things.
E) Require extra force for tap.
Many of the solutions requiring making the device more complex for the benefit of one plugin.
Even if Adobe optimizes flash so it’s not battery draining, the fundamental difference between touchscreen devices and computers might make Adobe Flash unusable on touchscreens due to the different nature of the devices.
Via:
An Adobe Flash developer on why the iPad can’t use Flash [roughlydrafted]