Top of the big era

The so-called Flash technology is, as the name suggests, oriented towards dynamic presentation screens.

This is the most important technology application in this field in the past few decades.

For example, dynamic advertisements on web pages can only be displayed if a Flash plug-in is installed; for example, to watch videos on a web page, you must also have a Flash component, and Flash provides support for video playback before you can watch the video.

Therefore, browsers in the past had built-in integrated Flash components.

And this technology has also spread to the gaming field.

If you want the game to run smoothly, you must have the support of Flash plug-in.

It can be said that the status of the Adobe software empire was not established by Photoshop, the image editing software. The foundation is actually Flash.

In the past ten years, Flash has unified the Internet!

All industry standards and all the right to speak are in the hands of Adobe, which has the unqualified position in this field.

Unfortunately.

At his peak, Adobe offended one person, and that was Steve Jobs.

When Jobs first returned to Apple in 1997, he asked many old friends for help, including Adobe. But Adobe believed at the time that Apple's product market share was too small, and it would not be enough to develop software for Apple!

Don't do it!

So much so that there is no adapted version of the Flash plug-in for Apple computers.

This caused a lot of trouble for the marketing of Apple computers.

When the iPhone became popular and the iPad took the world by storm, it was Jobs' turn to take revenge.

Adobe wants to push Flash into Apple products?

impossible!

Steve Jobs played a great trick. Apple’s system is completely incompatible with Flash!

Adobe secretly organized a team to develop Flash plug-ins for Apple systems... Apple immediately updated the system to continue not supporting Flash.

It was completely hard work.

Apple's lack of support for Flash is not a purely engineering issue, it involves the grievances between the two companies. After all, if Flash really has obvious technical loopholes and instability factors as Apple says, Google may have reported related issues long ago.

Of course, there's also the possibility that Google is distracted.

There are too many thorny problems that need to be solved in the Android system. We must start from the most important and gradually improve the system bit by bit.

Rejecting Flash would be tantamount to starting a war with Adobe, one of the top three software giants in the world. Google may not have such energy for the time being.

Zhou Buqi didn't quite understand the situation and asked, "What do you think?"

Lu Ji said: "There are several aspects. From a technical point of view, Apple makes sense. Flash does have big problems. It requires too much memory and consumption. Especially on mobile devices, Flash's Apps consume too much battery."

Zhou Buqi said: "Android phones all have large batteries, and their tolerance in this aspect will be very high. This is not the case with Apple phones. If the capacity is too small, it will be difficult to tolerate it."

Lu Qi smiled and said: "Yes, there are some factors involved. It has to do with the characteristics of the product. When Flash is started, it will take up a lot of memory, and it does not match the mechanism of the iOS system. After all, the memory of the iPhone is very small. And it will This causes the device to heat up, and the cold and heat resistance of the Apple phone is not that strong.”

From this point of view, Zhou Buqi understood, "It seems that it is not only the grudge between the two companies, but product factors are also very important. Apple can't change iPhone, iPad, including imac, MacBook and other products just to support Flash. the design of."

Lu Qi said with emotion: "So only Steve Jobs can do it. In the past, when all technology companies encountered this situation, they could only obtain Flash support by changing their own methods. Even Microsoft was helpless. , and can only adapt to Adobe. Jobs stood up this time because he wanted to change the past situation in which the software industry was hijacked by Flash."

For example, Changyou’s game “Dragon Babu”.

If you want to play this game, your computer must have related video demonstration functions like Flash. If Changyou cooperates with other plug-ins, it will be very troublesome, requiring additional downloads, and users will be very annoyed. But working with Flash is much easier, because almost all computers now have Flash plug-ins installed.

So for game companies, they have no choice but to adapt to Flash.

The same goes for the streaming industry.

If you want to watch dramas online on Netflix, for the sake of user experience, Netflix must adapt to Flash, instead of developing a similar product on its own or cooperating with Flash competitors.

Once such a pattern is formed, it will lead to the current situation in which the software industry is constrained. All software must adapt to Flash and develop software according to Adobe's standards.

Another example is Friends Network.

The profit model of Friends.com is to sell advertisements, and there are many dynamic advertisements... Dynamic advertisements are often the most valuable, earning more than static advertisements.

But if you want to display dynamic ads, you must support the Flash format.

Zhou Buqi didn't know about this before.

Even if he knew it, he wouldn't have the ability to change it.

Only Steve Jobs had such courage and courage.

and strength.

Many people use Apple devices, especially Apple computers. The most common complaint is that watching videos and playing games are too laggy... In addition to the relatively low configuration of the computer, the most important factor is the incompatibility between Apple computers and Flash.

Apple has sacrificed the experience of its own products and faced criticism from users to go against the monopolistic market leader, thereby promoting changes in the software industry.

Lu Qi knew that Boss Zhou didn't understand the logic behind this, so he simply said it.

This made Zhou Buqi immediately reminisce about Steve Jobs.

It's a bit self-deprecating.

Even if he is reborn, so what?

After being reborn, Zhou Buqi became the most profitable person in the world. But in terms of the ability to change the world, there is still a huge gap between it and others.

Even if it is such a trivial thing surrounding Flash, what they are doing is a big thing that changes the entire industry structure.

Zhou Buqi asked: "Without Flash, what is Apple's alternative?"

Lu Ji said: "HTML5."

"ah?"

Zhou Buqi is very familiar with this concept.

In the past few years, in the field of mobile Internet, there has been an important choice of technical solutions. Should we rely on HTML5 technology for browser services, or should we make independent apps?

Many companies chose the wrong route and fell behind in the mobile Internet era, such as Baidu.

Zhou Buqi was foresighted and of course knew that apps were the future, so he made a bold judgment early on and required all of his technology companies, including Netflix, YY, Farfetch, Spotify, Pinterest, Bilibili, Square, Tumblr, etc. Companies that hold shares must move in the direction of App when choosing their route.

He succeeded.

Thanks to the guidance of Boss Zhou, these companies all made the right choice of technical route at the first opportunity, and then quickly established a firm foothold in the mobile Internet era.

This also makes the concept of "HTML5" relatively negative on Ziweixing's side.

Boss Zhou doesn't like it.

This is also the main reason why Lu Qi made this call to the busy boss Zhou to see his attitude towards HTML5 and whether it is necessary to "unblock" this technology.

Because with the development of HTML5 technology, more technical directions have been derived, and its practicality has become stronger and stronger. HTML5, which has jumped out of the browser, is no longer a "choose one" relationship with the App, but is gradually getting closer and closer.

Lu Jidao: "HTML5 can not only be applied on the browser side, but can actually be applied on all mobile apps, including PC-side web pages. This is a new technology, and developers around the world are working together to find more solutions for HTML5 possibility."

Zhou Buqi asked: "Has Apple solved many problems by relying on HTML5?"

Lu Qidao: "Yes, HTML5 is a completely free and open new standard. Just like the HTML language in the past, it is gradually becoming an important cornerstone of the Internet. In terms of current animation display capabilities, HTML5 is still far away from Flash. There’s a big gap. But technology is improving and developers are working hard.”

Zhou Buqi smiled and said: "From your tone, you are very optimistic about HTML5?"

Lu Ji said: "From a technical point of view, HTML5 has more potential. HTML5 five years ago is no longer the same as HTML5 technology today. Five years from now... maybe HTML5 will really surpass Flash. . Behind Flash is Adobe, a company, and behind HTML5 are global developers. The talent base behind it is not of the same magnitude. In my opinion, HTML5 will definitely become the universal standard for the future Internet."

Zhou Buqi is a technical layman, so he often suffers a bit.

If he knew something about technology and had some foresight, he wouldn't need so much nonsense and could make a decision early.

Lu Qi is absolutely right!

HTML5 is the universal standard of the future.

Now, it’s Apple versus Flash; after a few years, Google will have almost perfected Android, and it will be free to optimize the system.

Flash technology has so many criticisms and problems, and of course it is within the scope of optimization!

Apple and Google attacked Flash together, and Adobe collapsed.

Flash, which has been domineering for more than 20 years, has withdrawn from the stage of history.

However, Zhou Buqi doesn't know much about the selection of these technical routes, but based on the current development of the industry, he can still make some specific strategic analyses.

Zhou Buqi pondered: "It seems that HTML5 does have great advantages. It is free and open, which means equality. No matter how many years Flash has been in use and how advanced the technology is, it is still a closed commercial application. It is owned by Adobe. If Flash dominates the PC and mobile terminals, some unpredictable things may happen in the future. Once Adobe uses its dominance to make some demands, all technology companies will be very passive. "

This is the perspective that a big boss should have. Lu Qi heard the loose tone of his voice and was very happy, "Yes, there are indeed such hidden dangers. This is a battle of standards, one is a public standard, and the other is an Austrian standard." Dobby’s standards. The choice that is most conducive to the development of the industry is of course to support open standards, the HTML5 standard!”