[erichsu]

Of course it's a business decision by Google. It would be negligent to their shareholders if it weren't a good-faith business decision for Google. It makes plausible strategic business sense for all the reasons others have outlined. (I think it's a bad move, but hey I'm not running the billion dollar company.)

Same with Apple. It is too simplistic to say "Apple dumped Flash". There were three great business reasons for Apple to not have Flash on iOS. (1) A decent speed/energy Flash didn't exist, and Apple had no leverage to get Adobe to make one, (2) Apple does not want to depend on any outsiders to advance their platform, (3) Apple wants to differentiate iOS, so they want to have software target advanced iOS features and be exclusive. Cross-platform tools like Flash defeat that.

Folks, these are the biggest tech players in the world. I don't think either one gives a crap about standards or the free software movement any farther than it advances their business model. We've been in a lucky stretch where both Apple and Google want to commodify web access, so they've support (mostly) open standards. Now they turn their guns on each other and will seek to commodify each other's core products (for Apple, hardware; for Google, advertising).