Adobe has published a surprising response to Apple’s quite thorough rejection of Flash on the iPhone and iPad.
Rather than address any of the technical points that Jobs raised as reasons not to permit Flash on its mobile devices, Adobe chose an entirely different approach: an appeal to human emotion.
“We love Apple.”
What?
Apple sent you a breakup letter, and you sent back a love note? Really, Adobe, that’s a little creepy.
No, this is seriously their campaign: We Love Choice, with a Stallman-esque plea to let people use whatever technology they want (i.e. Flash) to produce content for whatever device they want (i.e. the iPhone and the iPad).
After I stopped laughing, I read through the details of the letter again.
The main point of Adobe’s letter is that “markets” should be “open”. They state that “the best way to compete is to create the best technology and innovate faster than your competitors.”
That’s quite true. Probably the worst way to compete is to attempt to force a company to work with your technology (when they’ve given you reasons why they don’t think it’s technically possible), and then claim they’re infringing on people’s freedom of choice.
Adobe says it believes in freedom of choice for developers, content owners, and consumers. They must feel they’re on really shaky ground if they’re resorting to stirring up emotion with talk of love, beliefs, and freedom. They may be right. Apple consumers aren’t complaining too loudly about the lack of Flash on Apple’s mobile devices; it seems they’ve already made the choice.
The issue here is not openness of a market, it’s suitability of content for a device. Apple says there are technical reasons to not run Flash on its mobile devices. I would like to see Adobe present a compelling technical argument for Flash’s suitability for the iPhone OS, or at least directly address one of the six points in Thoughts on Flash, instead of trying to make this look like a moral decision on Apple’s part.
Messy, public breakups are just plain ugly. Adobe’s not doing itself any favours by drawing this one out.
Article via AppleInsider
