The Apple-Adobe Rift. What it means for the children.

I would be lying if this Flash grudge match didn’t bother me. With the release of the iPad without Flash, Adobe got a little bitchy and vented against Apple publicly. I admit in being initially disappointed. I was fine not having Flash on my iPhone. In fact, I never missed it. I knew Adobe has never got it’s act together on getting Flash to run well on mobile devices and I understood Apple turning it’s back on it. But the iPad was more powerful and promised the best web experience on any device. How could they say that, without Flash?

In response, Steve Jobs posted Thoughts on Flash (which you should read). In it, he claimed Flash was 100% properiety, the web should be open and HTML 5 is the future for delivering rich media content. This obiviously rubs alot of people the wrong way because Apple is notorous for having propeitary products. On that belief, Apple should drop their quicktime plugin now.

Truth is, Adobe has done a spotty job with Flash ever since they bought out Macromedia, after repeatedly failing in the web space. Although they have done a serviceable job with Dreamweaver, Flash has suffered under there hands, almost as much as, GoLive Cyberstudio, which was awesome until they mucked it up. It is a resource hog and a security problem on all the platforms. Adobe has made so many missteps with the mobile team, that their lead Macromedia Flash engineers have left to start a competing business in 2007.

It’s a gutsy move, that only Jobs could pull off. The web should be open. I think he is right, but I’m worried. Adobe and Apple where great partners that revolutionized desktop publishing in the nineties. Their excellent products are the lead factors why I enjoy Graphic Design so much. They are my tech champions! They have shaped and nurtured my profession life for over 15 years. Adobe needs to get Flash in order, and Jobs should not say never. I fear that Adobe products will continue it’s downfall on the Mac platform. I fear history repeating itself. Apple has revolutionized mobile, as they did with the PC, they will lose ground to inferior copycats, due to distain from consumers and developers. The competition will eventually be good enough, and all their great momentum will be lost.