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The Surprising Statistics Behind Flash and Apple

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the math-is-hard dept.

Barence writes "PC Pro's Tom Arah has dug up some statistics that cast severe doubt over Steve Jobs' assertion that Flash is the technology of the past, and Apple's iOS is the platform of the future. He quibbles with Net Applications' assertion that iOS growth is 'massive,' considering that mobile accounts for only 2.6% of web views, and the iOS share stands at only 1.1%. By comparison, Silverlight penetration now stands at 51% while 97% of web surfers have Flash installed, according to Stat Owl. 'At least when Bill Gates held the web to ransom he had the decency to first establish a dominant position,' Arah claims. 'In Steve Jobs' case, with only 1.1% market share, the would-be emperor isn't even wearing any clothes.'"

13 of 630 comments (clear)

  1. Oh dear... by grub · · Score: 5, Funny


    How to we mark an entire story as -1, Flamebait?

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    Trolling is a art,
    1. Re:Oh dear... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      How to we mark an entire story as -1, Flamebait?

      I don't know, I suppose the same way we mark you as -1, Fanboy

    2. Re:Oh dear... by evil9000 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I agree.

      Jobs' position is one where key technologies, such as playing video, should be done by the web browser and not held for randsom by 3rd party plugin developers who'se best interest is to put their app on every device out there. Posting articles like this only pushes the debate back afew steps.

      Flash + silverlight = can play video = browser plugins = win for particular corporations with vested interests to win at any cost
      HTML5 (ie iOS, firefox 4) = can play video = html5 inside webbrowser = open standards = win for all

    3. Re:Oh dear... by wealthychef · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I don't know, I suppose the same way we mark you as -1, Fanboy

      Thus you make his point for him nicely. There is no way to express an opinion on this subject without pissing people off, and it's mostly due to the tone of this article.

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      Currently hooked on AMP
  2. If iOS is a tiny segment, then why do you care? by Brannon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    How is SJ holding the web at ransom if he is in such a weak position?

    1. Re:If iOS is a tiny segment, then why do you care? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      How is SJ holding the web at ransom if he is in such a weak position?

      He isn't, SJ is just trying to make it sound like he is able to hold the web ransom and making the same BS claims about Flash in an effort to hold it ransom to his whims. SJ hopes to spout enough lies about Flash so everyone will adopt his version of HTML5 (not the so far agreed upon version since nothing is completely official), and if he can make his version of HTML5 the standard it will give him a lot of power on the web that he wants to use to leverage things like the iOS to his standards to keep more competition out of the game (similar to how IE was the 'standard' in the late 90's and helped lock out others like Netscape with sites "recommending IE only").

  3. Floppy drives anyone? by ThorGod · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Back when Apple stopped shipping floppy drives with their computers just about 99% of 'manufactured' computers shipped with floppy drives. People said Apple was moving too fast. Now, a decade or so later, floppies have gone the way of the dinosaur.

    There's probably quite a lot to make that analogy faulty. But I think Apple isn't holding anything randsom. They're just knowingly not supporting (what they see to be) old software.

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    1. Re:Floppy drives anyone? by jo_ham · · Score: 5, Informative

      The OS has always supported right click, since at least OS 8.6 - just plug in a 2 button mouse, or use control+click. The single button was all about lack of confusion, but it was not "enforced" if you wanted to be able to right click. So, they listened to the feedback way back when OS 8 was the new thing (in 1997) and provided right click for those that wanted it. The only way this could possibly affect Mac sales if if people didn't actually do any research before purchase and just assumed. Perhaps this is why, in 2010, people still think you cannot right click on a Mac (not that you do think that, but I have seen it on slashdot).

      All current Apple mice have right click. They haven't shipped a single button mouse for some time now. The wireless ones are multitouch too.

  4. Re:100m facebook users are iPhone based by Conception · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Probably more correctly, iphone users use apps and not mobile safari for a lot of normal web tasks. Movies, News, Social Networking, Media, Navagation... these are all done by apps.

  5. Re:Oh thank god by nmb3000 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Because Firefox users have no need for flash or Ad blockers do they.

    I presume you are implying that the reason people use Flash blocking tools is because all Flash content inherently needs to be blocked. This isn't true.

    The overly-prevalent mindset on Slashdot that "Flash is evil", "Flash needs to die", and "Flash is only used for bad things" is just plain wrong and broken. Flash is used in many places to greatly enhance things beyond what browsers are normally capable of. Games are an obvious example, but other applications such as Google Finance and Amazon's song previews are simple but effective examples. As is usually the case, the technology itself isn't really good or bad, but what people do with it can be. And people, as a rule, are decidedly good at making technology do bad things.

    This then leaves the question: Why do people block flash? Almost entirely it falls into two categories:

    - Flash is used in the most perverse and annoying advertisements that contain video and audio and which load the CPU unnecessarily
    - Flash has security concerns

    Consider these. People champion HTML5 as some kind of messiah which will bring the end to Flash's evil reign. Okay, what would that result in? I'll give you a hint: HTML5 blockers. Why? Because soon we'll transition to:

    - HTML5 is used in the most perverse and annoying advertisements that contain video and audio and which load the CPU unnecessarily
    - HTML5 has security concerns

    Personally, Flash doesn't really bother me, but that's largely because it can be controlled. I use NoScript, partially to block Flash, and that tamed beast can do useful work. I think most people who yearn for its demise either don't understand that the void Flash leaves behind will be filled with something (at least as "bad" as Flash, if not worse), or they're just mindless zealots regurgitating Jobs' claims.

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    "What do you despise? By this are you truly known." --Princess Irulan, Manual of Muad'Dib
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  6. Re:100m facebook users are iPhone based by compro01 · · Score: 5, Informative

    I find that figure remarkable being as there have only been about 50 million iPhones (counting all generations) sold worldwide, according to Apple's quarterly reports.

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  7. My numbers are different by zerosomething · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The university I work for has over 25 to 30 percent (5000 +) of it's staff using iOS devices. We gathered this info from our Exchange system. Students don't use Exchange so these are mostly well established professors and staff not a bunch of upstart kids. We have reason the believe the percentage of students using iOS is well over 30% if not closer to 50%. It's important to note that if you own an iOS device you also own a computer of some kind. People aren't using one device to access all content and iOS is by far the primary mobile platform if you are talking about small form factor or phones. You just can't produce stats that say otherwise. And yes Android is moving fast up the stats and they don't like Flash on it. Just think of all the Flash adds you are missing.

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  8. would-be emporer by nine-times · · Score: 5, Insightful

    the would-be emperor isn't even wearing any clothes.

    Maybe I'm being pedantic, but it seems like a failed attempt to be clever. "It's like the emperor's new clothes, except this time... HE ISN'T EVEN WEARING ANY CLOTHES!" He's not wearing clothes in the original story.