Adobe’s Adrian Ludwig posted a quick reaction to the news that iPad, at least in its initial form, won’t have Flash. The decision not to include Flash on iPhones was already controversial, but now with a bigger screen and a different usage profile, the iPad’s decision not to use Flash has even more people up in arms.
It looks like Apple is continuing to impose restrictions on their devices that limit both content publishers and consumers. Unlike many other ebook readers using the ePub file format, consumers will not be able to access ePub content with Apple’s DRM technology on devices made by other manufacturers. And 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.
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.