Wednesday, December 08, 2010

What's the Total Cost of Ownership of Flash?

Doug Johnson:

What schools can do is clearly outline the capacities Student Connectivity Device. need to have in order for students to participate fully in instructional activities and use school-provided instructional materials. Here might be a start on a short list of those capabilities...

Included under "recommended" (as opposed to "required") is "ability to run Flash." What's the cost of this? Having Flash might mean the difference between kids getting through the whole day on one battery charge and crapping out in the middle of 5th period. Flash on mobile devices is likely to degrade the overall performance and lead to more crashes and instability, more problems, and more support costs.

Now, you may need Flash for specific software the school is already using, but then it is a requirement. But if you don't need it, I wouldn't recommend it, and I wouldn't leave it hanging around on the big committee criteria checklist.

Also, who needs anti-virus software? And we really should be shooting for 8 hour battery life, not 4.

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