Mashable has today reported on an open and astoundingly frank letter from Apple head honcho Steve Jobs. The letter explains the reasons why Apple has chosen not to support Flash on its iPhone, iTouch and iPad devices.

The letter clearly outlines the defects that Apple has identified regarding the use of Flash in parallel with these devices.  This letter will probably be dissected thoroughly in the coming days and weeks and Mashable has praised Steve Jobs for his earnest and public facing explanation of the drawbacks of using Flash on Apple devices.

At the top of the grumble list, Steve Jobs blames Flash for draining the battery of mobile devices. He also continues by criticising its flaws when used in ‘multi-touch’ applications, in addition to its performance, security and reliability weaknesses.

Steve Jobs claims that web systems need to be open. Despite the fact that the iPhone OS is a closed proprietary system, Jobs has criticised the openness of Flash technology when compared with its Java, HTML5 and CSS counterparts.

Perhaps most importantly, Steve Jobs has emphasised that Apple does not wish to create an additional layer of technology that potentially comes between the Apple platform and developers who create applications for iPhone, iPad and iTouch.

Jobs has effectively condemned Flash technology as being a relic of the past, citing the fact that the technology was developed when people used ‘PC and Mice’. The Apple supremo continued by saying that the mobile web is about low powered devices that run on lightweight software applications. In addition, the mobile web requires open software standards and ‘multi-touch’ interfaces, these all being areas where Flash falls short.

What do you think of the comments made by Steve Jobs? Is he correct in stating that Flash is resigned to history, or is it just an attempt to justify his desire to keep the App store afloat by not enabling Flash games and apps in the Safari web browser?

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