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Adobe Lashes Back At Apple And The WebAdobe Lashes Back At Apple And The Web
In response to the heated discussion occurring all over the Internet, Adobe is striking back. It posted a new blog that claims "a lot of the speculation [Adobe is] hearing for why Flash Player isn't on the iPad doesn't make sense."
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In response to the heated discussion occurring all over the Internet, Adobe is striking back. It posted a new blog that claims "a lot of the speculation [Adobe is] hearing for why Flash Player isn't on the iPad doesn't make sense."Adobe's Adrian Ludwig posted a blog on Wednesday, January 27 almost immediately after Apple announced the iPad to discuss the iPad's lack of Flash. He made some candid observations and pointed out what we all more or less agree on: It's odd that the iPad doesn't support flash.
Since then, it seems nearly every tech blog has posted pieces on why Flash matters and why it doesn't. Robert Scoble posted a great blog posing the question, Can Flash Be Saved? Scoble argues:
Is there some way for Adobe to convince Apple that Flash matters? No. Adobe had three years to do that and has failed. That said, Adobe has invited press to its headquarters in the next few weeks to see its new platform and my friends who are using it say it's pretty nice. Uses very little memory and is friendly on batteries.
So, Adobe's best hope is to get Android to support Flash and Adobe's best hope is that developers ignore the iPad and ignore the iPhone, or, at least, build better experiences on the Android and Google Chrome platforms that include Flash.
Well, it has one other thing it could do: it could come out with a set of developer tools that lets you build apps for the iPhone and iPad but that also let you deploy even better features to Android and other platforms.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs apparently also took shots at Adobe at a recent town hall style meeting held at the company's headquarters. He called Adobe lazy, and said to Apple employees, "Apple does not support Flash because it is so buggy."
For its part, Adobe is firing back. Ludwig gone on the attack against Apple, making a number of arguments against what Apple is doing. Ludwig also looks to dispel some of the arguments being made by many across the Web:
"Flash technology isn't open" -- The Flash file format specifications are open and unrestricted, so Apple can build their own Flash Player if they want. If Apple wants the source code to the Flash Player, we're happy to provide it, just as we have to many other device manufacturers.
"Apple doesn't want to pay for Flash Player" -- Apple can put it on the iPad (and iPhone) without paying Adobe or anyone a dime. The Flash Player has always been free to all consumers worldwide, and is available to device makers royalty free through the Open Screen Project. There are dozens of other devices that do that today.
"I don't want Flash on my iPad (or iPhone)" -- That's fine, we support your ability to choose, and don't want to require Flash Player on any device. But we do want it to be an option for the millions of people who have requested it.
"Flash won't perform well on the iPad (iPhone)" -- It's fast enough for other devices that have similar chips (and even less powerful chips) built on the ARM architecture. The Palm Pre, Google Nexus One, Motorola Droid, and other devices all run beta versions of Flash Player 10.1 beautifully.
"HTML5 is replacing Flash" -- This is a red herring to justify keeping a platform closed by drawing attention to another open technology. HTML5 and Flash are in no way exclusive. As with HTML4 and Flash, there are some use cases that can be served with either technology, but there are also many cases where the technologies serve different purposes. As on Android devices, HTML 5 and Flash can both easily be supported on this and future devices.
Ludwig goes on to question Apple's motives here and accuses it of inhibiting innovation by sticking to closed platforms. He's not wrong. The Safari browser is the only browser available on the iPhone and will be the only browser available on the iPad. That means users who prefer Opera, Firefox, Chrome or Camino won't be able to install an alternative. That's just one example. There are many others.
Ludwig also notes that because developers can't use a number of different languages to write applications, it will only further stifle innovation. He said, "iPad could be a great source for innovation. It would be a disappointment to see that wasted by keeping it closed to outside innovation to protect the Apple Tax."
The issue continues to be debated and will likely flash up (pun intended) hotly when the device finally hits the market in a couple of months.
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