[Terretta]

No, that’s not why they didn’t support Flash.

Before the App Store (and still today), iPhone had support for third party apps and an open (non-Apple App Store) app ecosystem, HTML5 apps installable to home screen with offline mode. At the time, you could install games like PacMac that worked fine.

Apple avoided support for Flash because it was absolute crap on mobile, from hardware issues affecting battery life to UX issues such as presumption of a cursor and hover states.

I wish developers and media streamers had let go of Flash sooner and moved to HTML5+JS, before the native App Store captured all the mindshare. Apple’s biggest mistake here was misunderstanding the lasting power of Adobe’s simpler tool ecosystem for “creators”.

iPhone didn’t need Flash. It did need better tools.

// Source: Owned a video CDN throughout the player wars, with ongoing first person conversations with folks from the companies in question, and their key media and publishing clients were our clients.