I gotta take my hat off to Apple. In the three years since the iPhone’s launch the other mobile OEMs are still desperately trying to play catch-up. Even the impressive Android OS doesn’t quite managed it. Android handsets are already suffering the terrible fragmentation issues (different OS versions, screen resolutions, user interfaces) that Apple has managed so well across its handsets. Sure with so many manufacturers adopting Android it was always going to be impossible to prevent this but it still gives iPhone the edge in my opinion.

Now with the release of the iPad there’s a new super shiny device on the market for all of Apple’s competitors to try and better. Let’s hope they can catch-up a little quicker than they managed on mobile. The iPad has only been on release for a month or so and Apple has already sold like a zillion units, which might not read well for Adobe who will no doubt be hoping that tablet devices from other manufacturers will support Flash and make it a viable option for parties wishing to create apps and web content for these devices.

To date there haven’t been many alternatives to the iPad that have impressed. One device however that’s looking promising is the ExoPC Slate. From the video and preview from engadget this 11.6 inch slate sounds like it could be a worthy competitor and unlike the iPad will support Flash Player 10.1. Given the recent bad press with the HP Slate, it’s a little surprising to see that the ExoPC uses Windows 7 and has its own UI layer built on top. Perhaps Windows 7 will prove itself to be a capable OS for tablets after all.

The ExoPC looks fairly complete but don’t expect it to hit the streets until September. And although there wasn’t a lot of Flash content shown in the preview video, its fairly high specs should mean that playback of Flash content will be a breeze, especially with the great optimisation work that has gone into Flash Player 10.1 by Adobe’s engineers. The second half of this year should be really interesting as we start to see more and more great Flash enabled mobiles and tablet devices appear. The big question is “By end of this year what will the number of all these Flash enabled tablets be compared to the iPad?”. Currently it stands at 2 million to zero in the iPad’s favour.

Remember that incredibly impressive interactive WIRED Magazine demo Adobe showed off a few months back? The one that was built using AIR and was intended ultimately for iPad until Apple banned all Flash-related content from their mobile devices? Well against all the odds Adobe announced the release of the WIRED Reader for iPad the other day and it looks every bit as slick as the original AIR demo.

The technology behind it is obviously no longer based on AIR but Adobe’s press release states it was created using InDesign CS5 and additional Adobe publishing technologies. Like everyone else I’m interested to know what the additional publishing technologies are and when the public will get their hands on it.

There was some talk of Apple and the lack of Flash support on iPad/iPhone during last week’s Adobe CS5 Road Show, with the presenter hinting that we might want to keep an eye on Adobe Labs over the next couple of weeks for a special announcement. My guess is he was referring to the WIRED app and the availability of the additional tools used to create it.

Most of you will have seen the ‘What is a browser?’ video where Google take to the streets of New York to see how many passers-by actually know what a web browser is. Even though they all seemed to surf the web regularly, only 8% of them knew what a web browser actually was. Well the video sparked an interesting conversation in the office between myself and a friend.

One question in particular came out from the conversation: Do people actually know what Flash is?

It would be really interesting to see a similar video asking this question to random folk. I suspect the results would be much worse than the miserable 8% from the Google video. Many of my friends and relatives know that I’m a Flash developer, but whenever I try explaining to them what Flash is their eyes glaze over, with some even seeming to slip into a semi-vegetative state.

So is this really a problem? Well it shouldn’t be. Your average user should just be able to enjoy browsing the web without caring about what technologies are being used to render the content. Unfortunately with the increasing penetration of the iPhone and the imminent release of the iPad looming, Adobe could be in trouble.

Most iPhone users, and I’d imagine this will be the case for those with iPads too, will probably get by with a stunted web experience. iPhone users have after all been making do with a Flash-less web for some time now and I suspect that most of them simply shrug their shoulders and move on when they stumble upon a Flash-based site.

If people don’t know what Flash is or even care then how are phone and tablet manufacturers going to convince them to purchase their Flash-enabled devices over Apple’s products? Other than geeks, who’s going to buy an Android phone because it says on the box that it supports Flash? Claiming that Flash-enabled devices will allow users to browser ‘the complete web’ isn’t going to do much good either, since Joe Public already mistakenly believe that the iPhone and iPad can already do this.

For me it’s difficult to see round this problem. Perhaps the trick is not to mention Flash at all, instead focusing marketing on popular Flash sites that will only be available to these Flash 10.1 enabled devices. Or maybe Adobe are just hoping that the handsets they’re targeting will eventually grab a large enough market share giving Flash the mobile penetration it needs to be relevant.

My main concern however is the time this will take. The longer iPhone and iPad dominate in their spaces, the more websites will drop Flash in order to cater for the ever increasing number of users who have Apple devices.

I’m extremely excited by the prospect of seeing Flash on mobile but there is an ever decreasing window of opportunity to get Flash 10.1 out there. Let’s hope that Adobe and its many partners manage to get Flash on enough devices before a tipping point is reached and websites stop using it.

Good news boys and girls. Steve Jobs might be trying his damnedest to keep Flash off all his shiny new toys but that hasn’t stopped Adobe from ensuring that those using the upcoming Flash Pro CS5 will be able to create applications that will run on the iPad. Content compiled using Flash’s iPhone Packager will happily run on the iPad as well as the iPhone and iPod Touch.

It doesn’t look like they’ll support the iPad’s full screen-resolution in the initial release – I guess there’s simply no time left to add any new features before launch, but it’s clear from this quote taken from the Adobe Flash Platform Blog that it won’t be long before full-screen support arrives.

It is our intent to make it possible for Flash developers to build applications that can take advantage of the increased screen size and resolution of the iPad.

Good news and it’ll be interesting to see what innovative applications the Flash community come up with.

So here it is: Apple’s latest technical marvel.

No wait a minute, that’s not it! Ah here it is.

Sorry my mistake, but it’s an easy one to make I suppose. After all both are quite large, touch-sensitive, and extremely shiny. Any other similarities? Oh yeah, and neither support Flash, although at least the Monolith’s creators have an excuse seeing as Flash wasn’t around a billion years ago when the Monolith was actually built.

It’s clear Apple hate Flash. It’s clear Apple really want to kill Flash. And it’s clear they have a plan. If their devices can gain enough penetration then the need for Flash will diminish as more sites ditch it to ensure a better experience across Apple’s products.

I’d asked in my previous post whether HTML5 would kill Flash. I think Apple are more of a threat to Flash than any single web standard, and I still firmly believe that Flash’s future lies in its success on mobile.