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If you have not yet, Read Steve Jobs “Thoughts on Flash”, an Open letter to Adobe on Why Apple isn’t supporting Adobe Flash for its hand-held gadgets. Apple banned the use of applications that were made in Flash. In Short here is what Steve Jobs said

Steve Jobs claims Flash drains the battery of mobile devices; it’s not very good for multi-touch operation; and its performance, reliability and security are all shoddy. It’s also a proprietary system, and while Jobs admits that their mobile OS is also proprietary, he claims that web standards should be open, like HTML5, CSS and JavaScript.

Most importantly Apple doesn’t want “a third party layer of software [to] come between the platform and the developer.” Finally, Jobs concludes, Flash is a relic. “Flash was created during the PC era –- for PCs and mice,” he says, “but the mobile era is about low power devices, touch interfaces and open web standards –- all areas where Flash falls short.”

Apple’s decision to ban applications developed in Flash from its products has sparked a furious war of words with Adobe – but it still isn’t clear which company has the most to lose. The restrictions were slipped into the license agreement for the iPhone OS 4 developer kit and demand that "applications must be originally written in Objective-C, C, C++ or javaScript", with "intermediary translation or compatibility layers"explicitly prohibited. The announcement coincided with the launch of Adobe Creative Suite 5, which includes a packaging toot that allows Flash developers to port their apps to the iPhone. Adobe has confirmed that it has abandoned development of the feature, with feelings running high within the company.

This is a frightening move that has no rational defense other than wanting tyrannical control over developers and, more importantly, wanting to use developers as pawns in its crusade against Adobe," said lee Brimelow, Adobe’s platform evangelist. "Speaking purely for myself, I would like to make it clear what is going through my mind at the moment. Go screw yourself Apple. "Adobe has dismissed speculation that it will yank Creative Suite products from Mac OS X in retaliation, but plans to focus development on Android and other platforms, claiming that ultimately open platforms will win out over Apple’s walled·garden approach. The comments drew a withering response from Apple. "Someone has it backwards – it is HTMl5, C55,JavaScript, and H.264 (all supported by the iPhone and iPad) that are open and standard, while Adobe’s Flash is closed and proprietary” , said spokeswoman Trudy Muller.

Source: PC Pro Magazine

Adobe replies to Apple with Love

Here is complete reply from Adobe’s founders:

The genius of the Internet is its almost infinite openness to innovation. New hardware. New software. New applications. New ideas. They all get their chance.

As the founders of Adobe, we believe open markets are in the best interest of developers, content owners, and consumers. Freedom of choice on the web has unleashed an explosion of content and transformed how we work, learn, communicate, and, ultimately, express ourselves.

If the web fragments into closed systems, if companies put content and applications behind walls, some indeed may thrive — but their success will come at the expense of the very creativity and innovation that has made the Internet a revolutionary force.

We believe that consumers should be able to freely access their favorite content and applications, regardless of what computer they have, what browser they like, or what device suits their needs. No company — no matter how big or how creative — should dictate what you can create, how you create it, or what you can experience on the web.

When markets are open, anyone with a great idea has a chance to drive innovation and find new customers. Adobe’s business philosophy is based on a premise that, in an open market, the best products will win in the end — and the best way to compete is to create the best technology and innovate faster than your competitors.

That, certainly, was what we learned as we launched PostScript® and PDF, two early and powerful software solutions that work across platforms. We openly published the specifications for both, thus inviting both use and competition. In the early days, PostScript attracted 72 clone makers, but we held onto our market leadership by out-innovating the pack. More recently, we’ve done the same thing with Adobe® Flash® technology. We publish the specifications for Flash — meaning anyone can make their own Flash player. Yet, Adobe Flash technology remains the market leader because of the constant creativity and technical innovation of our employees.

We believe that Apple, by taking the opposite approach, has taken a step that could undermine this next chapter of the web — the chapter in which mobile devices outnumber computers, any individual can be a publisher, and content is accessed anywhere and at any time.

In the end, we believe the question is really this: Who controls the World Wide Web? And we believe the answer is: nobody — and everybody, but certainly not a single company.

Chuck Geschke, John Warnock
Cofounders
Chairmen, Adobe Board of Directors

FYI, Even HTML5 runs 7 times faster on Google Nexus One as compared to the iDevices i-e iPhone, iPad etc.

What Users and Developers Want

Screw being “OPEN”. Lets be Honest,

Neither Apple nor Adobe is a poster child for open software, open standards or open development. That doesn’t mean either company is bad. It does mean that bringing those sorts of emotion-driven phrases into the debate only conflates the issue and makes things more difficult to dissect.

Adobe is in a difficult position in this debate because it’s an easy target. There aren’t any mobile devices that ship with full Flash support (‘coming soon” doesn’t count), and more and more content publishers are either moving to HTML5 for video or exploring native applications (not created in CS5) in lieu of Rich Internet Applications (RIAs).

The mobile web is not the same as the web on the desktop, and the sooner everyone realizes that, the better. I would much prefer Adobe show off more first-hand demonstrations of what Flash can do on mobile devices, why it is a suitable technology for touch interfaces and how embedded systems can use it rather than get into arguments about what is or is not the future of video and whether or not Flash is a suitable IDE for native mobile applications.

On the flip side, I would much rather Apple continue to show its support of the open web and web standards by furthering development of WebKit and building those features into its mobile and desktop devices instead of micro-managing its vast army of mobile developers.

In a perfect world, both companies could agree to disagree and move forward on their own path without attacking the other. Sadly, I doubt that’s going to happen anytime soon.

Source: Mashable

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AFI