Arik Hesseldahl

Recent Posts by Arik Hesseldahl

Adobe CEO: The Flash Argument With Apple Is Over

Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen says the argument with Apple over supporting its Flash software on the iPad and iPhone devices is over. “It’s an argument that the press likes to continue bringing up,” he said in an on-stage conversation with Walt Mossberg at the D conference.

Earlier, Narayen said he thinks the issue with Apple has less to do with technology than about control. “It’s control over the app store that’s at issue here,” he said. “We allow people to author once and get as wide a distribution as possible….If you build in Flash, you can run the apps on other platforms.” He said Flash is supported on 130 million mobile devices, though Mossberg reminded him that Flash “struggles” on the Android platform.

Narayen said that software developers can work around Apple’s no-Flash restrictions by building their applications first in Flash and then compiling them in another Adobe platform, AIR. “If you can build an app using our tools, and if you run it through AIR, it can be in the App Store.”

He also said that Adobe is contributing some of its expertise around type and design to HTML5, the technology that Apple has thrown its weight behind for Web video and multimedia on the iPad and iPhone. “We welcome the evolution to HTML5, and are actively contributing to it.”

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Nothing called the Gang Of Four ends well.

— Windows President Steven Sinofsky on Google Chairman Eric Schmidt’s “Gang of Four”