By Dave Heaster

I think I might be the only person on the planet who owns both an iPhone and an iPad but cannot wait to get rid of them once a suitable Android device comes along. It is true ? I love my iPhone and iPad, but I do not like Apple.

As you take a minute to let that sink in, let me explain why I feel this way: I am a child of the Internet.

I started playing with the Web back in 1994 ? with my Mosaic browser. I still look back on those early days with a sense of wonder. Here was a new, graphical use of the Internet that regular Joes such as me could use and understand. 

But it did not stop there. The thing I liked most was the open, almost hippie feel of it. Everyone could have access. We lived by standards (W3C). The proprietary days of Windows was going to be a thing of the past. People were writing applications for the browser versus an operating system. Life was exciting and good.

Then along came Apple.

Coming next: iFedUp
It is funny, as a love child of the early Web, I grew an almost unhealthy disgust for Microsoft ? or as I called them, ?Microsloth.?

However, in the shadows lurked a different kind of beast that threatened our free-loving, hippie culture that was the Web: Apple. 

Sure ? they have great designs, and they are so ?in? with the cool set ? i.e. students, musicians, artists and actors.

However, Steve Jobs was slowly, methodically taking the ?Hip? out of my hippie Web Wonderland.

Who has an iDevice and uses iTunes? Tons of us. Why is it that when I rip my personal CD/DVD collection to my hard drive I have to turn around and ?iRip? it into iTunes before I can ?iTransfer? it to my iDevice? 

If you were able to follow that, you will note that I now have three massive files in my possession: 1) the original standard format file ? let us say a .mov file 2) a proprietary ?iFile? for iTunes and 3) a proprietary ?iFile? for my device. That just smells wrong to me.

In 1994 the Web looked very dork ? lots of clip art and silly sound files of CEOs saying ?Welcome to our Web site!? ? in six languages. And the speeds were crazy slow. 

I recall I had a modem 300 baud modem ? which meant it was really slow. So we had all of these cool clip art and sound files, but we could not get our site to come up on the average Mosaic browser because the modem speeds would not allow it.

Then along came Macromedia and its Flash tool.

In 1996 Macromedia Flash hit the streets. Suddenly there were engaging, multimedia sites that would actually run on our slow modems. It was like a re-birth of the Web ? allowing for creative and engaging content to be streamed one vector sprite at a time. Could anything be this cool? Yes.

Odd Jobs
Fast forward 10 years, and we find what I can only describe as ?Unbelievable? Flash/Flex applications that helped usher in the Web 2.0 era.

Enter ? stage left ? Steve Jobs and his iPhone.

The first iPhone hit the streets in January 2007. Very cool device ? I cannot argue with that. I waited until the 3Gs, but like most folks I was ?hooked.? Then came the iPad in 2010 ? just what everybody needed: an iPhone that had a screen big enough for you to actually see it.

So why am I now ready to chuck my iDevices into New York?s East River?

For some odd reason, Steve Jobs has decided not to support Adobe?s Flash technology. It does not sound too bad at first. Most of us are still in our honeymoon phase ? the big bright screen and the cool applications from Kindle and Netflix. But for me, the honeymoon is over. 

I am way too frustrated by the iPad Web experience. Seems like 50 percent of the sites I like use Flash ? which means they do not work on any iDevice. Why is this?  Why would Steve Jobs not want to give his consumers the best experience possible?

I pondered the question for weeks ? and then it finally hit me. 

Most of you out there have already come to this same conclusion: An iDevice that supports Flash would make applications ? and more importantly the Apple App Store ? unnecessary.

It is that simple ? to open up the iPhone and iPad to Flash would mean that companies could make sites that look and feel like an application ? but would not have crawl to the App Store for distribution.

Flash forward
I have no issue with applications or with the App Store, per se, but this attempt to control the flow of creativity and commerce is just not acceptable to me.

As a result, I charge that you join me in asking Apple to ?stop the nonsense and start supporting Flash.? 

Flash is good ? far more advanced than HTML5 and other technologies. 

Do not keep us from having our cake and eating it too.

Picture that 1984 Apple ad where the woman throws the hammer through the screen ? only picture Steve Jobs as the curmudgeon on the screen. We need Web freedom.

Can Apple really hold out and thumb their nose at Flash forever? Not a chance. 

It will not be long until someone, be it Hewlett-Packard, Dell or Asus, develops a compelling Android tablet pad which does all that the iPad can do ? plus supports Flash. 

As content developers, we should not be a part of bringing the mountain to Apple headquarters in Cupertino, CA, by avoiding Flash. Instead, we should bring Cupertino to the mountain by pushing Flash to its limits and jumping on the first phone or pad that supports the new Web 2.0 world we live in.

Dave Heaster is an ecommerce architect and unhappy iPhone/iPad user based in Sussex, WI. Reach him at .