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Adobe Vs. Apple: Whose Side Are You On?

It's no secret that Adobe and Apple have been exchanging quite the back and fourth lately. Steve Jobs put out his letter about not usin...
Adobe Vs. Apple: Whose Side Are You On?
Written by Chris Crum
  • It’s no secret that Adobe and Apple have been exchanging quite the back and fourth lately. Steve Jobs put out his letter about not using Flash on Apple’s devices, and Adobe fired back.

    Essentially, the skinny of it is that Apple will not support Flash, as it considers HTML5 to be the way forward, and Adobe thinks its Flash technology is as relevant as ever, and will continue to be.

    Do you think Flash will continue to play an important role moving forward? Comment here.

    Adobe has gone so far as to start an ad campaign around the dispute. Some sites like Engadget, which brought the campaign to the industry’s attention, are displaying the ads:

    Adobe's Apple Ads

    Adobe Co-founders have written a letter about their "thoughts on open markets", which concludes by saying:

    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.

    Update: Apple has now apparently sent out an email campaign advertising Adobe’s CS5 from the Apple Retail Store.

    Google I/O begins Wednesday (we’ll be covering it – watch for live video), and Flash will no doubt be a large topic of discussion throughout the event, as Google’s Android plafform does support it. According to Engadget Android 2.2 and Flash "run like butter" on Google’s Nexus One phone. Google may in fact be the biggest winner in the Apple vs. Adobe debate, because if nothing else, it has painted Android (usage of which is already growing significantly) as an iPhone alternative that supports Flash.

    This past week, popular online video site Hulu said it would be sticking with Flash over HTML5 for the foreseeable future.

    Apple Holic Johnny Evans points to a free iPhone app called Cloud Browse, which lets users remotely control a Firefox browser with the results streamed to you on your iPhone. "This big brouhaha between Adobe and Apple over Flash sure is amusing," he writes. "But is it really necessary? I mean, everyone knows there’s an app for everything, right? So why’s Flash an exception? It’s not."

    Either way, this still illustrates a demand for Flash.

    Apple’s advertising strategy seems to be aimed at looking forward, which is really why the company started this to begin with (per Jobs’ letter) The new iPad commercial claims its device as the beginning of a revolution.

    What are your thoughts on this whole debate? Who’s right – Apple or Adobe? Both? Neither? Let us know what you think.

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