Apple’s decision to leave Flash support conspicuously absent from its new iOS, the operating system for its wildly popular iPhone and iPad, has created a strange situation. Adobe, owner of Flash, sells a lot of software for the Macintosh and in any normal universe would be considered a great ally of the Cupertino computer and device maker. What has happened instead is a few years’ worth of rough edges and misunderstandings. This article may not provide any answers, but it should at least ask the right questions, and it’s not always “What’s best for Steve Jobs?”

The battle took a turn in early 2010 when Adobe began spending oodles of real, not virtual, money on a new ad campaign promoting choice, telling the “truth about Flash,” and countering some of Apple’s criticism. One print ad is a big love letter to Apple (it starts with a huge Apple “Heart Icon”), while other web pages, press releases, and interviews with Adobe management have been more contentious. The campaign directly targets Apple as well as consumers, although it is careful not to mention Jobs or his company name.

Adobe’s view

“The genius of the Internet is its nearly infinite openness to innovation. New hardware. New software. New apps. New ideas. Everyone gets their chance,” Adobe co-founders Chuck Geschke and John Warnock say in an open letter to Jobs. . “In the end, we think the question is really this: Who controls the World Wide Web? And we think the answer is: no one…and everyone, but certainly not a single company.” Adobe is pushing a loosely defined open web standard, but intends to clarify its general position during the second phase of the public relations campaign.

This letter was sent in response to one that Jobs published that was not so discreet or pleasant. Jobs pretty much called Flash a power hog, proprietary, far behind the progress of the touchscreen interface, unstable, and a security risk. Jobs made the very popular and widely used Flash sound like a dinosaur. Adobe has responded with this new multifaceted PR campaign, but it’s too early to know what to make of consumer reactions. Millions of Internet users love Flash, and iPhone and iPad users seem to prefer Flash support by a majority that is hard to quantify.

Flash and HTML5

For its part, Apple says it believes in open web standards, as does Adobe, but points to HTML5 as the answer. Flash, Apple spokesmen point out, is not an open web standard like HTML, but rather a proprietary Adobe product, something the W3 consortium that controls web standards made clear when it chose HTML5 as the standard with which to move forward. Adobe has responded with its own technological arguments, pointing out that Flash does, in fact, support multi-touch technology and has power requirements that are in line with other audio, video and motion graphics solutions on the Web.

Flash, say its supporters (going far beyond Adobe, of course), allows programmers to create every kind of content possible, from movie streaming sites and web-hosted games to interactive stock charts and photo albums. relatives. Much of the appeal of Flash is that a programmer can develop a single program to work on a variety of computers, regardless of different operating systems and browsers. Still, Apple continues to deny Flash to iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch devices, all of which run on the new iOS. Adobe even tried to bypass the iOS lock with its new CS5 version of the Flash Pro tool, but when the product came out, Apple rejected Flash and similar tools by changing the language in its iPhone OS 4.0 SDK (Software Developer). equipment).

Now what?

Adobe has now ruled out further development of its Flash-to-iPhone utility, but is still deeply dismayed to see Flash’s huge cross-platform potential curtailed by its absence on the ubiquitous iPhone. Independent developers aren’t particularly thrilled with the turn of events, either, with some even canceling attendance at Mac programming conferences in opposition to what some see as pushy ways from Apple.

For its part, Adobe is making sure that not all of its eggs are in the Flash basket. Although the company continues to promote Flash, as indicated by the recent release of Flash Player 10.1, it is also getting better at HTML5 and other approaches in its web development program, Dreamweaver. Whatever happens, both Adobe and Apple are positioned as big (although mega-big) players in the web saga, and with all the brainpower of both companies, it would seem that some kind of middle ground could be reached. Before this can happen, of course, some attitudes will have to change, and the battle will have to evolve into more polite conversation. That’s how consumers will win, so that’s the message they (we!) should be sending to both companies.

Apple, Adobe, please! Work it out.