At last week’s media event heralding the release of the iPad, Apple’s new tablet computer, promotional materials suggested that its Safari browser can load Adobe Flash content. But during Steve Jobs’ 8-minute walk-through on the subject, his demo version could not do this.

People were waiting to see how Jobs would deal with Flash in his demo, so they were quick to note the discrepancy. A period of investigation followed, and as a result 2 things became clear: the iPad doesn’t support Flash and probably never will, and Jobs has left Apple open to legal claims alleging false advertising.

The controversy erupted when 9to5Mac’s Seth Weintraub observed that in an 8-minute video whose release was timed to correspond with Jobs’ demo, a section at the 1:15 mark showed a piece of nytimes.com web site known to be supported by Flash. It appeared to load properly.

Around the same time, AppleInsider called attention to an image of the iPad on Apple’s web site that displayed Flash-based content from the The New York Times’ “31 Places to Go in 2010″ feature (see picture).

But Jobs didn’t mention Flash during his demo (found here). And when when he came to the part in the demo about nytimes.com, his iPad showed not pretty pictures but a pair of queer-looking Blue Legos—the dreaded “broken plug-in” icon.

Jobs’ silence and those Blue Legos spoke volumes. The iPad doesn’t support Flash. It remains unclear whether Apple was trying to manipulate the promotional materials to hide this fact.

Would Flash Make the iPad Better?
Jobs’ decision to display nytimes.com in his iPad demo is ironic. The Times site uses Flash extremely well. In fact Flash is, according to Weintraub, probably the best current alternative “for companies that want to put out interactive content for the web.”

“Without Flash support, iPad users will not be able to access the full range of web content, including over 70% of games and 75% of video on the web” Adobe’s Adrian Ludwig explained. “If I want to use the iPad to connect to Disney, Hulu, Miniclip, Farmville, ESPN, Kongregate, or JibJab — not to mention the millions of other sites on the web — I’ll be out of luck.”

“Something that ignores a huge part of the web cannot be the ultimate browsing experience,” added TheFlashBlog’s Lee Brimelow. “I love Apple products, especially my iPhone, and that is why I’m passionate about this,” he added.

So why isn’t Flash on the iPad?
Technical considerations probably played a role a few years ago, but no longer. Apple had been using Samsung ARM chips which, some said, delivered a lousy Flash experience and on those grounds alone, the company ignored Flash in developing the iPhone.

But then, Android phones featuring ARM Cortex A8 processors were released. They supported Flash. Subsequently Apple began using the A4 ARM Cortex A9, a chip that should “provide a good experience, especially with Adobe working with ARM on optimizing the experience for their architecture,” said Weinstein.

So now, “it isn’t about speed,” Weinstein concluded. “The iPad’s processor can handle Flash.”

What it is about, is business. In November 2008, Wired.com predicted that Apple would probably never support Flash on the iPhone. “Allowing Flash would open doors to content that competes with apps in the App Store,” Wired reasoned. It would, “be in Apple’s interest to shy away from the platform.” The same reasoning applies to Apple’s new iPad.

So, “instead of being able to watch the Daily Show and the Colbert Report free with ads (on Hulu), my only (reasonable) option is to buy them on iTunes,” explained Weinstein.

Apple has not responded to several requests for a comment about Flash or the false advertising complaint.

Late Breaking Developments
–>Over the weekend, Paul Threatt, a graphic designer at Jackson Walker design group, filed a complaint to the FTC alleging that Apple engaged in false advertising during last week’s media event. It reads as follows:

On the Apple iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch devices, Apple provides a proprietary web browser named Safari. On these electronic devices, Apple computer does not support the web browser extension commonly referred to as “Flash”. The Adobe Flash extension is a popular browser plug-in that has gained wide popularity due to its ability to easily display video and image based slideshows on the web.

In several advertisements and images representing the Apple products in question, Apple has purposefully elected to show these devices correctly displaying content that necessitates the Adobe Flash plug-in. This is not possible on the actual devices, and Apple is very aware of that fact.”

“Despite the controversial lack of support for Adobe Flash on these devices, Apple has elected to depict these correctly utilizing the Flash plug-in. This constitutes willful false advertising and Apple’s advertising practices for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and the new iPad should be forcibly changed,” Threatt claimed.

–>On Friday Apple removed the image of the iPad showing nytimes.com content from its home page. It also revised the video to show the blue legos where appropriate on the nytimes.com site.


–>Also Friday, Weintraub said: “We’ve just got word from our source at Chiat/Day Media Arts Lab that they make fake optimized web pages for all of Apple’s commercials — which load faster. In this case they made optimized images to take the place of Flash and are redoing them as we speak.”

–>Meanwhile MacRumors has sources at The New York Times telling it that the Times itself “generated high-resolution images of several of its pages, including Flash, in order to improve the look of the pages for Apple’s use in iPad marketing materials.”

Glenn Laffel, MD, PhD
Sr. VP Clinical Affairs, Practice Fusion