Some snippets:
• Mr. Narayen says that the difference is that Adobe believes in open content. He says that their Creative Suite software was designed to work on multiple devices and that Apple’s ‘recent behavior shows that they are concerned about Adobe being able’ to provide this product that works across multiple platforms.
MacDailyNews Take: Disingenuous remarks that simply have no basis in facts. Adobe’s Flash is proprietary. It is not open, it is closed. Mr. Jobs clearly explained all this earlier today. If Adobe actually believed in open content, then they would be working to provide authoring tools to create the best HTML5 experience possible, not pimping their proprietary, closed, dying Flash.
• He says that Apple’s restrictiveness is just going to make it “cumbersome” for developers who are trying to make products that work on many devices. They’re going to have to have “two workflows” … one for Apple devices and one for others.
MacDailyNews Take: More poppycock. We do not want lowest common denominator software. Mr. Jobs clearly explained all this earlier today, too. As we’ve written many times before: “Adobe’s Flash is a proprietary, resource-hogging, browser-crashing abomination and, even more importantly, we don’t want ported software on our iPhones, iPads, or Macs because software designed for the lowest common denominator is inferior to software designed to take advantage of individual platforms’ strengths. Adobe is lazy and they want to cater to developers like themselves. When given a choice between going the extra mile to accomplish great work that’s custom-tailored to individual platforms or clicking a button to excrete watered-down ported results, lazy Adobe will always choose the latter. Android and the rest of the me-too also-rans are perfect for Adobe. May they all drown together in their homogenized puddle of mediocrity.”
The rest of Narayen’s weak, baseless bleats can be found here.
MacDailyNews Take: If Adobe really wants to go to war with Apple, they must have a death-wish.
Note to advertisers: (including those who advertise via third-party ad networks and become, in effect, our advertisers): Your Flash-based ads are no longer reaching the most well-heeled customers online: 50+ million iPhone owners. They’re also not hitting brand new iPad users or 35+ million iPod touch users. If you care about reaching people with discretionary income, you might want to consider dumping your flash-based ads and moving to a more open format that people with money and the will to spend it can actually see.
Help kill Adobe’s Flash:
• Ask MarketWatch to offer HTML5 video via the customer support web form here.
• Ask CNBC to offer HTML5 video via the customer support web form here.
• Contact Hulu and ask them to offer HTML5 video via email:
• Ask ESPN360 to offer HTML5 video instead Flash via their feedback page here.
• Join YouTube’s HTML5 beta here.
• On Vimeo, click the “Switch to HTML5 player” link below any video.
By the way, do not buy Adobe’s Photoshop Elements until you have tried Pixelmator’s free 30-day trial. We use Pixelmator daily.
As a customer I have a reaponce to Mr Narayen: Fuck you! I don’t want your bland lowest common denominator software on my iPhone.
I’m also a student programmer and if I know one thing about programers, they’re lazy. If you let them, they’ll take the path of least resistance. I applaud Steve for forcing developers to do real work to make apps that can utalize the bells and whistles Apple has provided.
Adobe has screwed over their Mac customers for years. Karma is a bitch.
Adobe seems to think Flash is open because flash player is available for free on every device and that Flash apps work across multiple platforms. The fact is “open” means that there is a GPL license agreement that anyone can create a flash professional writing application, not just adobe. Anybody can create flash without having to involve adobe. The only thing Adobe has that is truly open is the PDF format. People can create their own tools for working with PDF’s, not just adobe’s. But people can’t create their own tools for working with Flash, they must buy Adobe’s Create Suites updated once per year.
iPhone is closed yes. But so is OS X. So is Windows. But they all have the same thing in common. They integrate open STANDARDS wherever possible. HTML 5, Javascript, XML, etc…
Someone should tell Quark–uh, I’m sorry, I mean Shantanu Narayen–that there’s no profit to be made in having a pissing match with Steve Jobs. Remind him of Rule of Acquisition #73. Good customers are like razor-toothed Gree worms. They can be succulent…but sometimes they bite back.
You can watch the WSJ piece in glorious H.264 on your iPads and iPhone.
poor Adobe…
What exactly is “open content”? One that requires a proprietary plug-in?
Plug-in = free handcuff everyone is open to bind their wrists to – hey it is free and open, must be good right?
@ Rodger,
“I love my iPhone. It is the best phone on the market. However it is the most propritary os on the market. If you really believe in open software buy android it is 100% open source!”
I don’t believe you have an iPhone, but that’s not my point.
Android is not 100% open source when Google can use the latest Android update on the Google phone and keep it from other manufacturers. Nothing open about that.
Is Google always going to have the latest Android OS before everyone else gets to use it? Sure looks like it.
@Mike B
Check out the full video:
http://online.wsj.com/video/pm-report-flash-fight/2A24D1CF-057D-40E1-ACC5-5A805BC471D9.html
Won’t play on iPhone. Flash-based? Ironic
Narayen is redefining the term “tone-deaf”
Why don’t Apple just buy Adobe and fire the CEO.
He looks like a criminal anyway if you haven’t seen him.
Apple would never buy Adobe.
Apple is a hardware company and Apple is moving away from the professional market and into the mass consumer market.
But part of me does wish Apple would squash Adobe.
Apple… Buy Adobe. Kill off Flash and the PC line of products.
word
Narayen should resign and apply for a job as a shoe salesman. Like so many companies before it, Adobe started going to the dogs when its two founders, John Warnock and Chuck Geschke, retired.
Narayen does have a point with regard to developers using cross platform tools to target multiple operating systems. It of course gives the developers more potential customers. And it can diminish the unique value of an operating system. This is the aspect of the argument that Jobs’ leaves out. Flash is not just an alternative to HTLM5. It is an alternative the XCode. Apple is working to cement its leadership. It is a very interesting struggle to watch. Go Apple! Go HTML5! Go XCode!
David F:
Time to start putting collective pressure on ATT to make Roaming fees reasonable.
Now that there are so many telcos worldwide that carry the iPhone, theybought to be able to cross bill for Americans in Europe etc…
Start a Reduce iPhone Roaming Charges petition and your guaranteed success .
You’re guaranteed success…;
Seems no one can answer point by point anymore…
No wonder there’s no innovation, common sense, development or progress anymore on many levels…
ADD, incompetence, laziness and arrogance rule the day at Adobe especially. Even their farmed out Indian tech support is infected the same way…
Looks like Adobe is spewing Maobama type Alinsky tactics. Down with liberal scum. Yee-haw for this fall when the libtards go down in flames.
First off… These reporters think because they work for a news paper with good reputation, whatever they say is right or truthful.
Secondly, these journalists think because they work for a news paper with good reputation, they will turn failed crappy products into successful ones (Flash, MS Windows) just by saying good things about them or justifying failures.
Thirdly, where’s the difficulty of understanding Flash is not good at all, irrespective of the number of people using it!!!. Just because many people is using crap means everyone else is bound to use crap too?? Julia seems to really enjoy and take any kind of bug riddle [software] product like MS Windows or Flash.
Fourthly, these journalists cannot see beyond the length between their eyes and nose tip. The lady in San Francisco is using a Mac Book Pro, I guess for some reasons. You guys in New York get a Mac Book ASAP.
Believe me.
Open content? What closed content is available on apple gear? Movies? Is adobe working to give us open movies?
The reason why Apple’s message is simple and the replies are convoluted and warped is because the latter are lies.
It’s good to see what actual developers think. They are focusing on being productive using the platform that suits them.
As for Monotouch, Apple has already let several Monotouch apps into the app store.
Outright blocking translators is silly. It’s like Honda voiding your warranty because you didn’t use a Honda brand wrench. Never mind the fact that the other wrench could be superior.
Alan Murray, when asked about the business models at the start of the clip, states that “Adobe wants (and web developers want) web applications that they can build one time and deploy across multiple devices”
He goes on to say “That’s not what Steve Jobs wants. He believes he’s built something special in terms of the iPad and iPhone and he wants developers to develop things specifically for those devices. I think that is the conflict.”
My take: That is not the conflict. If Adobe were to truly knuckle down and deliver what it wants (as stated above), then there would not be any conflict at all as they would automatically be catering for the innovators that are pushing the envelope (perhaps by closely working with them) in evolving operating systems and devices. Mr. Narayen has the gall to state elsewhere that if Adobe crashes Apple, that actually has something “to do with the Apple operating system.” He would not be making this statement if his company truly lived up to its multiple devices ideal in the first place!
But their track record shows they are just not able to do so and Steve Jobs is right to call them on it. But to do so at the end of his tether out of exasperation, in such an open and public way is indicative of a different problem. If I were an Adobe stockholder, I would be TUNING INTO THIS RIGHT NOW! No CEO of any company would level such criticism straight off the bat at an event that garnered such global coverage. There would have been months of informal and formal exchanges on the matter at developer then executive levels between the two companies before the matter came to a head on the iPad launch.
As providers of tools, Adobe are in the “picks & shovels” business in this digital goldrush. And they will always be wrong footed by companies like Apple that are fast foraging ahead with new innovations.
Considering Apple, it appears to be following a military doctrine devised by John Boyd of making and implementing decisions faster than the decision-cycle time of any of its adversaries. Hence the reason why the HP Slate has not been heard of since January, Palm has failed miserably, Courier has been canned by M$ and JooJoo is a stillborn runt. Unfortunately, this doctrine also wreaks havoc on the suppliers of “picks & shovels” as the implements they sell become obsolete much faster.
In light of this, Steve is dead right in his stance against Adobe as he clearly states particularly in reasons three to six of his open letter.
Shantanu Narayen would be better off tuning in to a key customer (Apple) and creating change in his organisations mindset than publicly crying about the pace of change inflicted by this highly innovative player that is rapidly making his product offering irrelevant in the marketplace. My concern is that he is in denial (based on past successes, market share etc) and Adobe shareholder value is at risk.
Being open is about conforming to open standards specifications, not about running on multiple devices.
For instance, the commercial versions of the Unix operating system, IBM’s AIX, Sun’s Solaris, and HP’s HP-UX are implementations of the open standard Unix System V.
What open standard does Adobe Flash conforms to?
Open content is not the same as open source, where did they get this toad from? Talk to Murdock about open content ha ha he is sick to death of scum scaping his quality content and calling in open content.
It is becoming palpable Adobe and Microsoft don’t have competent programmers, and it shows in the low quality of their software products.
You know this really isn’t about Apple vs Adobe… not at all. To me this is more about convenience vs craftsmanship. Those who favor convenience often do so at the cost of quality. Those who value craftsmanship understand that there is something special and unique in each set of tools, and aspires to use each to its fullest.