In response to Jobs' attack, Adobe takes its toys and goes home

Tue 04 May 2010 3 Comments

Adobe responds quietly to Jobs' rant

Handbags at dawn... the latest round in the Adobe/Apple war of words sees Adobe suggesting that it has plenty of other friends it can play with, if Apple won't play nicely.

In response to Steve Jobs 1700 word open letter explaining his company's antipathy to Adobe's Flash, Adobe has posted a short reply, indicating that Apple's new terms and conditions would see Adobe shifting its focus to other handset manufacturers.

Apple founder and CEO Steve Jobs attacked Adobe's Flash in the letter, accusing the technology of being out of date, power hungry, weak on security, useless on touch-screen devices, and soon to be rendered superfluous by the adoption of other standards such as HTML5 and H.264 video. He also defended the new iPhone developer rules forbidding third-party code being recompiled for use on the iPhone, saying it resulted in 'sub-standard' applications.

However, Adobe is affecting an attitude of mild disinterest in Jobs' rant, with  Adobe's chief tech officer Kevin Lynch commenting that although he's confident that an Apple/Adobe partnership could have produced a great Flash user experience on the iPhone, it doesn't really matter because the iPhone isn't the only game in town.

Instead, he said, Adobe would be focusing its efforts on getting Flash working well with devices such as Google's Nexus One and  RIMs Blackberrys, as well as Microsoft, Palm and Nokia handsets. He went on to add that Flash Player 10.1 was due for release on Google's Android platform this month, and that from that point on there would be "an ever increasing number and variety of powerful, Flash-enabled devices" which would create "a great landscape of choice".

Meanwhile, rumours have started to surface that Apple may in fact go back on its terms and conditions change rather than face an anti-trust investigation - although that's highly unlikely to change anything in the Apple/Adobe relationship at this late stage.

Originally published on www.mobilecomputermag.co.uk, now incorporated into Broadband Genie

Like this? Please share it!

Like Broadband Genie?




Comments

  • neutral

    by jsmith at 19:46 on 4 May 2010Report abuse

    Jobs had some good points in his letter, but it is still just a bunch of smoke screening to excuse himself and his company from facing the FACT that Apple just wants to control everything that goes onto their products. Why can't apple just make something and let people do what they want with it? If people want to use Flash on their device, then let them. Quit making "cool, hip" devices, SELLING these devices to consumers, but in a way, acting like you still own the device. Just let Flash work on your device and if people want to hassle with making flash programs work smoothly on the device, then let them. Quit trying to control everything. Bottom line is, Apple is innovative, trendy and a step ahead of the game in terms of making great mobile devices, BUT they are ever much the control freaks and handcuff their users to rely entirely on them for content. And that is fact. They may look cooler and more liberating than the dorky PC guy in the commercials, but they are just as bad when you get to the core.

  • happy

    by Niko at 17:37 on 5 May 2010Report abuse

    Haha. Headline and first paragraph made me laugh out loud. They are indeed behaving like massive children.

  • neutral

    by Shanks at 10:59 on 7 May 2010Report abuse

    There is one more problem with Flash which Apple won't accept. Flash needs too much CPU, if indeed it uses CPU, which mobile processors have not able to supply. Agreeing to this problem, would be like agreeing that iPad's processor is not that powerful. The other solution is a GPU, but still we need to see the products out there in the market, rather than just demos.

    It has been a classical argument in technology industry- if you can't do it, reject the reason of its existence.

Add your comment now

Post a reply to this thread

 

 

Please describe your emotions in making this comment:


Powered by reCAPTCHA

Unless you are a verified user, comments will be moderated before they appear. Comments submitted entirely in capital letters, containing advertising or excessive swearing will be rejected; please try to be polite. The best comments are relevant, factual and balanced; think about all aspects of the package, such as speed, connection quality and customer service. We reserve the right to edit comments.