Let's Go to the Videotape: Before Adobe and Apple Went All Gosselin on Us!

April 9, 2010 at 10:05 am PT

It’s quite a feat, but Apple and Adobe are actually making the fighting between Kate and Jon Gosselin look tame by comparison.

To recap:

In February, BoomTown paid a visit to Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch to talk about the software company, including its brewing war with Apple over its popular Flash video technology.

In essence, Apple CEO Steve Jobs had called Adobe’s flagship software crap.

Indeed, after Apple (AAPL) introduced the iPad tablet in January without Flash Player technology, which Apple also kept out of the iPod and iPhone, Jobs dissed Adobe (ADBE) as “lazy” at an employee meeting.

Also, said Jobs, the company had let Flash become a buggy security nightmare and resource hairball.

During my interview, Lynch soft-pedaled the tech tussle and promised that Adobe was working hard with Apple to resolve the issues, as any tech couple might.

Unfortunately for Lynch and Abode, the conflict got a lot worse yesterday, when Apple went all Jon Gosselin and escalated the battle by adding new rules for developers that freeze out Adobe.

As MediaMemo’s Peter Kafka noted:

“Apple is preventing Adobe from using a tool that will port applications created in Flash to Apple’s iPhone and iPad operating systems….Adobe has been pointing to that workaround as its answer to Apple’s anti-Flash campaign, arguing that developers could create programs that work on most of the Web as well as Apple’s platforms. Now it appears that Steve Jobs and company are forcing developers to choose: Our way or no way.”

And Adobe was forced to acknowledge the potential damage of the Silicon Valley battle in a regulatory filing yesterday:

“To the extent new releases of operating systems or other third-party products, platforms or devices, such as the Apple iPhone or iPad, make it more difficult for our products to perform, and our customers are persuaded to use alternative technologies, our business could be harmed.”

You think?

At times like this, it’s a good idea to look back at where it all went wrong, so here’s the video of the interview I did with Lynch about the way they were.

(I’m asking him for another, natch!)

Tagged with: Adobe, Apple, Apple Tablet Feature, BoomTown, developer, digital, Flash, Gosselin, hardware, Internet, interview, iPad, iPhone, iPod, Kara Swisher, Kevin Lynch, MediaMemo, Peter Kafka, regulatory, Silicon Valley, software, Steve Jobs, tablet, telecom, video

comments so far. Add yours.

Michael Bigley

The lesson Adobe needs to learn from Apple is in Snow Leopard. Lynch’s comment about more features in Flash is the death nell. Like Apple’s OS development Adobe needs to take a “feature break” and focus an entire development cycle on fixing their software (not just Flash).

Click-to-Flash is installed on most of my company’s Macs because it is simply crapware– a necessary evil in some cases, but my web browsing experience actually improved after installing that product. If Apple really wanted to kill Flash, they would buy that company and make it a standard in Safari. Once advertisers saw that install base (like the 3 ads on your site I am not seeing), they would insist their ads be made in HTML5.

I don’t think Apple wants to kill Flash, but they won’t sacrifice performance on their devices either. If Flash delivers then all will be well. But Lynch is either misinformed or lying in his comments about Flash performance on a Mac. It is horrific.
TimT9999

Sounds like Kara has a job with Adobe's PR Department. A couple of obvious flaws here. Jobs never called “Adobe’s flagship software crap” as Kara says. Flash wasn't even invented by Adobe. They got it when they bought Macromedia. Their flagship software is Photoshop and no one is saying negative things about it at Apple.

Kara's main focus is the fact that Apple's new rules don't allow apps developed in Flash to work on the iPad/iPhone. But that's hardly “Apple went all Jon Gosselin.”

Kara points out that Adobe could lose money because of that rule. She doesn't point out that Apple loses money if they allow Adobe's cross platform development tool to become the de facto standard.

Apple's business is based in part on getting as many developers as possible onto Apple's developer tools. If developers have apps on every device out there, Apple loses its edge as the place with the most app choice. That also means that Apple depends on Adobe for delivering user experience. And the fact is an app developed specifically for the iPad using Apple's toolkit will be more responsive and “Mac-like” than one that is generic (all other developer issues being equal).

Kara would have pointed all this out if she wanted to be objective.
http://blog.macb.net macbeach

Adobe: Nice people, bad strategists.

Apple: Good strategists, not so nice people.

Apple may be doing the world a service by lighting a fire under Adobes all too comfortable A$$.

Might be to little to late for Adobe's future though.

Apples display infrastructure is based on the PDF (or Acrobat) format as I understand it, and I also here there is discontent there.
JohnDoey

> Apple is preventing Adobe from using a tool
> that will port applications created in Flash
> to Apple’s iPhone and iPad operating systems

Not really accurate. Apple is preventing people who use that tool from deploying their applications through App Store. The Flash CS5 user can still use the tool, build their apps, and deploy them internally.

Also, what Adobe did was create an export target for Flash that turns Flash into Cocoa, the iPhone's proprietary application programming interface. Nothing is preventing Adobe from creating an export target for Flash that turns Flash into HTML5, the iPhone's open application programming interface.

Adobe's fate is in their own hands thanks to the open standardization of HTML5. If Flash CS5 could convert Flash presentations to HTML5 it would be exactly what Adobe's customers need to update their Web sites from HTML4 to HTML5.
tinyethan

This is a big disappointment for me with Apple. The few “normal” people I've heard comment on their iPads have used phrases like “what's wrong with my iPad” and “Apples usually really good about selling finished products. Why did they release this before it was done.

I'm just afraid that this will open the door for our competitors to waltz in with more complete prodcuts. I don't like not having the choice to use certain products either.
tinyethan

Not sure how that technically works – HTML 5 wouldn't (when it someday becomes a standard – it isn't now) support features such as 3D, interactive video, and full featured games.
JohnDoey

What Adobe has been doing is definitely not nice. It's not nice to expect other people to do things for you and take a tantrum when they don't. It's not nice to bypass interoperability standards and set up a toll booth on a public highway. It's not nice to blame other people for your mistakes.

Apple is asking *nothing* of Adobe. Adobe has a list of *demands* for Apple. They are like a spoiled child.

Apple could buy Adobe twice over with cash and still have lots of cash left over. Why would Apple let Adobe even pick the color of the drapes in their lobby?

Adobe has been doing anti-Apple PR for 3 years, pretending that FlashPlayer is running on all other mobiles and iPhone is the sole abstainer. But FlashPlayer is not shipping for any mobiles. It doesn't work on mobiles. This is Adobe's fault, not Apple's fault. ARM-based mobiles have been around since 1993, and have had HTML5 desktop class browsers since 2007. Yet no FlashPlayer is ready for them.

If the Adobe Flash converter made HTML5 apps instead of proprietary Apple apps, then the output of the packager would run on iPhone with no involvement from Apple. No approvals, no nothing. Steve Jobs could shut down Apple entirely and it would have no effect on a Flash CS5 with HTML5 converter.

So Adobe's fate is in their own hands, not Apple's.
John

Interpreters have always been banned, since the App Store was first rolled out. No Java, no JVM, no Flash, etc. This isn't a new rule “freezing” Adobe out. It's more like a clarification that, no, the Flash CS5 “compiler” software that Adobe will be releasing on Monday is still not going to pass muster.

Apple is actually doing the Flash developers a favor by clarifying this in advance. At least they know that Apple will reject the Flash-to-iPhone apps before they pay for an expensive CS5 upgrade.
http://fastforwardacademy.com/index-page-irs-enrolled-agent-exam-course.htm Monique

Thanks for reminding me of the whole Gosselin debacle– as if I wasn't getting tired enough of it just watching Dancing with the Stars. :o) Sigh.
http://mindtaker.blogspot.com/ drunken_economist

Other than Kara channelling 'Fox & Friends' and shilling for Adopey, the tantrums exhibited by the newly M&A'd clubkids over there really remind me of the old Macromedia and why, around the bay area they used to be called 'micro-meany'.

I guess Adobe laid off all the nice, older greybeards who would have headed off this kind of drama long ago. Now we're left with snivelers.

Microsoft has a disallowed plugin / RIA technology too. You don't see them sniveling or trying to make end runs around the platform. You see them dishing content from the server side and showing up on Uncle Steve's iDevices via IIS-Silverlight server.

I guess I'm saying, silly Adobe, tricks are for kids.
http://mindtaker.blogspot.com/ drunken_economist

+1 to John. Seriously, it's posted everywhere, go read the old sec 3.3.1 and the new one. It's a clarification because some so-called 'developers' refused to honor the spirit of the rule.

Some puppies need to be told EXPLICITLY 'no crApping in the walled garden'. And get the wet newspaper over the nose.
dis6us

Why does this video not play on the iPhone?
a: Apple doesn't support Flash.

Why does this video not play on Google Chrome?
a: Adobe doesn't support Chrome.
leehoss

What I find amusing is that on the unity3d blog they seem adament that this move by Apple won't effect them.

http://blogs.unity3d.com/2010/04/10/unity-and-t…
Guest

What I find rather amusing is that the people over at unity3d see this block by Apple not having any effect on them….

http://blogs.unity3d.com/2010/04/10/unity-and-t…
http://www.catstonepress.com Cindy Marks

I read often that people have a problem with Flash working on their Macs. I've had nothing but Mac products for many years and have never had any sort of error message or crash on the internet with Flash. Can you elaborate a bit on the horrific scenarios? I use Flash quite a bit in my products and would like to be more aware of what could potentially be a problem.

Let's Go to the Videotape: Before Adobe and Apple Went All Gosselin on Us!

comments so far. Add yours.

AllThingsD by Writer