Adobe and ARM Partner to Bring Flash to ARM-based Mobiles (Like the iPhone?)
Speaking as a Flash developer with almost 10 years experience, I cringe at the thought of Flash Player for the iPhone.
The reasons are twofold: first of all, when comparing performance of native Cocoa apps and ActionScript programs running through the Flash runtime engine, speed is certainly an issue. A mobile device has limited resources (power, cpu cycles, etc.), where every cycle counts. An app that does the exact same thing (eg. animate a box around the screen) will consume more power under Flash than a native Cocoa app. So, show me something that you can do in Flash that you can’t do in Cocoa.
Secondly, while there are a fair number of applications written for Flash that run fine on the desktop (required resources and speed aside), the poor debugging and drag-and-drop nature of the majority of Flash development, means memory leaks, infinite loops, and general inefficient code practices are rife (eg. like loading things into memory, using them once, and then leaving them there).
If a poorly written flash banner crashes your web browser (or tab), you can close it, relaunch your app, and barely notice. If a poorly written flash banner runs on your iPhone, it’ll suck your battery dry.
To every developer who wants to bring their app to iPhone, Apple has clearly given the answer: learn Cocoa.
