In this age of online-everything, this fact is hammered home by the Flash-less nature of mobile surfing: the iPhone has no Flash application. Because they don’t like Adobe’s existing applications and won’t let them have the tools to develop new ones.

The impasse has escalated with this error message:

That’s what you see when you try to play flash video on your iPhone, Adobe informing you “This is Apple’s fault so please get really upset with them.”  The core of the issue is Apple’s strict regulation of the SDK (Source Development Kit), enforcing heavy-handed measures to make sure that no silly “other people” do anything unapproved with their equipment.  Not your equipment.  Theirs.

The end result?  Years later the iPhone still can’t run flash video, despite mobile media being one of Apple’s points, and once again illegal crackers can code far more than professional companies who want to produce high-demand products.