Author: Michael Evans
A byproduct of today's iPhone OS introduction is the nail it has hammered into the coffin of the iPad naysayers. The lack of multitasking, which will be rectified this year, was one of the major–if not the major–reasons for not buying an iPad (or an iPhone for that matter). The other unpardonable Apple error in the iPad spec was the lack of support for Flash.
Personally, having seen the performance improvement in my MacBook Pro since I turned off Flash, I don't know what all the fuss is about. But I suppose many people cannot live without. I thought it significant, however, that in today's demonstrations, Steve made extensive use of HTML5 where, at the iPad launch, we saw more than one "no-Flash" blue boxes. He's a quick learner, our Steve, and doesn't make the same mistake twice.
When it comes down to it, I doubt if the vast majority of iPad buyers will care about Flash any more than do the 80 million users of iPhones and iPod touches. It hasn't put them off and I don't think it will make an appreciable dent in iPad sales either.