Adobe Gives Up Trying to Port Flash to iPhone, War of Words Continues
Adobe Gives Up Trying to Port Flash to iPhone, War of Words Continues
Posted 04/22/2010 at 7:21am
| by Paul Lilly
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Following Apple's change to the terms of its iPhone 4.0 software developer kit license, which would effectively block Adobe from porting native Flash support to the iPhone and iPad, Adobe has come out and said it's throwing in the towel, but not without a few parting words.
"As developers for the iPhone have learned, if you want to develop for the iPhone you have to be prepared for Apple to reject or restrict your development at any time, and for seemingly any reason," said Mike Chambers, Adobe's principal product manger for the Flash platform. "The primary goal of Flash has always been to enable cross browser, platform and device development. The cool Web game that you build can easily be targeted and deployed to multiple platforms and devices. However, this is the exact opposite of what Apple wants. They want to tie developers down to their platform, and restrict their options to make it difficult for developers to target other platforms."
Those remarks didn't sit well with Apple, who issued a response through company spokeswoman Trudy Muller.
"Someone has it backwards -- it is HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, and H.264 (all supported by the iPhone and iPad) that are open and standard, while Adobe's Flash is closed and proprietary," Muller said.
So where does Adobe go from here? Over to Google, for one. Chambers was quick to point out that "the iPhone isn't the only game in town" and said Adobe is working closely with Google to port both Flash Player 10.1 and Adobe AIR 2.0 to Android-based devices, including smartphones and tablets.
There's also been talk that Adobe may take its beef with Apple to court. In a regulatory filing, Adobe said its business could be harmed if the iPhone and iPad don't support its technology, and some analysts believe Adobe may have a legal leg to stand on.
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okron1k
April 23, 2010 at 9:10am
why wont adobe just release flash for the jailbreak community? i figure if they do that, and more and more people go and jailbreak their phones for it.. maybe apple will get the hint?
Five Rabbits
April 22, 2010 at 5:15pm
And to think for a long time Adobe products were the only reason people bothered with Macs. Well that and schools that bought them by the dozens so kids could type up their reports in claris works. Oh how the times they change.
aviaggio
April 22, 2010 at 1:59pm
Wait... Apple is complaining that Flash isn't an open and non-proprietary product??? Isn't that like the donkey calling the burro a jackass?
weaslem32
April 22, 2010 at 2:55pm
Don't you mean the Kettle calling the pot black, and I do agree with you. Apple is one of the most closed source companies out there.
metropolis has you.
Caboose
April 22, 2010 at 3:14pm
DID YOU KNOW THAT...
"In the western United States the word "burro" is often used
interchangeably with the word "donkey" by English speakers. Sometimes the
distinction is made with smaller donkeys, descended from Mexican stock, called
"burros", while those descended from stock imported directly from Europe
are called "donkeys"From Wiki.
NOW YOU KNOW
(If you've ever watched Bill Nye, you should get that little reference there)
-= I don't want to be dead, I want to be alive! Or... a cowboy! =-
hagbard
April 22, 2010 at 1:18pm
"Someone has it backwards -- it is HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, and H.264
(all supported by the iPhone and iPad) that are open and standard, while
Adobe's Flash is closed and proprietary," Muller said.----
H.264 isn't an open standard.
gendoikari1
April 22, 2010 at 3:30pm
Ogg Theora is open but only Firefox and Opera use it if they want to work with HTML5.
SPAM FILTER MUST DIE
hagbard
April 22, 2010 at 5:21pm
Yes, but the Apple representative specifically referred to H.264, not Theora, as "open", which is what I was calling her out for.
Alperian
April 22, 2010 at 1:02pm
Machiavellian, recalcitrant, monopolistic, Apple are playing it perfectly. Developers will go where the money is. Apple's graphic-studio Mac market is now a trifling and unimportant part of its business.
Flash has always needed a plugin and that has been its weakness. As a Flash developer myself I will not be buying any Apple stuff soon and the only hope is that ALL the browsers and even my cooker and refrigerator incorporate the FPlayer in the near future.
Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice Doggy' until you can find a rock.
Atomike
April 22, 2010 at 12:35pm
I am hoping beyond hope that somehow Adobe decides to discontinue Photoshop support for OSX. That would teach Apple a big lesson - namely how to go out of business. It's a lesson I hope Apple learns soon. Apple is probably the worst run company in the history of companies.
xRadeon
April 22, 2010 at 9:55pm
Yeah how about Adobe saying that they will no longer develop products for Mac OS unless they allow flash on their iPhone OS. I wonder how fast Apple would say okay, we'll let you do flash on the iPhone.
zebeste
April 22, 2010 at 12:33pm
I like how the Apple spokesperson mentions JavaScript despite the fact that it is one of the technologies not allowed by the new licensing terms.
Caboose
April 22, 2010 at 12:43pm
No one said that Marketing/PR/Spokespeople were intellegent.
-= I don't want to be dead, I want to be alive! Or... a cowboy! =-
nadako
April 22, 2010 at 12:26pm
I really dont think adobe is really giving up. They may have just pushed Apple in a corner or more like they hurt Apple's business. They are probly hoping that the flash developers for the iphone will drop the iphone and move to the android market thus limiting the app market there is still a high demand for flash and the first phone that gets it will more then likely win. Apple may just run to adobe later on. And if the relationship worsens then adobe may cut support for the Apples OS.
jcollins
April 22, 2010 at 2:20pm
Adobe needs to come out with flash for the Android and other platforms fast.
TechJunkie
April 22, 2010 at 12:03pm
Give it up adobe, your not going to win. Crapple has decided that flash isn't good enough for thier precious toys. So go give all you got to the Android and WebOS devices and show what the little apple fritters are missing! And for you Trudy Miller, I think your open and standard -- Give you bread and you'll Spread.
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