Adobe Responds to Apple, is Fine With Breakup

Yesterday, Steve Jobs made it painfully clear what Apple's stance was towards Adobe and Flash – not going to happen for iPhone OS devices.

Adobe quickly responded in its blog section, essentially saying that they won't bother sticking around if they're not wanted. Kevin Lynch, CTO of Adobe, wrote in a post titled "Moving Forward" that the company will be shifting "to all the other major participants in the mobile ecosystem, including Google, RIM, Palm (soon to be HP), Microsoft, Nokia and others." Basically, no Apple.

This morning Apple posted some thoughts about Flash on their web site. The primary issue at hand is that Apple is choosing to block Adobe's widely used runtimes as well as a variety of technologies from other providers.Clearly, a lot of people are passionate about both Apple and Adobe and our technologies. We feel confident that were Apple and Adobe to work together as we are with a number of other partners, we could provide a terrific experience with Flash on the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.However, as we posted last week, given the legal terms Apple has imposed on developers, we have already decided to shift our focus away from Apple's iPhone and iPad devices for both Flash Player and AIR. We are working to bring Flash Player and AIR to all the other major participants in the mobile ecosystem, including Google, RIM, Palm (soon to be HP), Microsoft, Nokia and others.We look forward to delivering Flash Player 10.1 for Android smartphones as a public preview at Google I/O in May, and then a general release in June. From that point on, an ever increasing number and variety of powerful, Flash-enabled devices will be arriving which we hope will provide a great landscape of choice.

Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
  • Caffeinecarl
    Great... make yourself incompatible with something so universal that every browser should just come with it installed!

    Way to back yourself into a corner, Apple!
    Reply
  • itadakimasu
    *sigh*

    Does Steve not realize that flash support is probably the biggest downfall of the iphone?

    I do enough w\ my iphone but i'd use it alot more if I had flash.
    Reply
  • MrHectorEric
    I'm looking forward to flash on my Droid. Even though Adobe wouldn't limit their market, it would be interesting if Adobe discontinued all products for OS X also.
    Reply
  • Nakal
    I am waiting for Adobe to pull their entire CS suite from Apple. Now that would be funny :p
    Reply
  • figgus
    I place the blame squarely on Adobe. It is entirely their fault that flash lagged and was unmaintained for so very long. Had they stayed on top if it and kept it updated, slim, and stable, this whole thing would be a non-issue.
    Reply
  • prince_david
    Amazing, in the past weren't Apple & Adobe close partners? I always heard that Apple were the computers built for artistic programs like Photoshop and such.
    Reply
  • ajcroteau
    I commend Adobe for at least attempting to make Apples latest products a little better experience for users.

    But that goes to show you how far Steve Jobs has his head shoved up his a$$...
    Reply
  • Tindytim
    Eh, no huge loss.

    I'm excited for the day that flash dies, mostly because it's hugely inefficient, is reliant of proprietary software, and needs a third party application installed on your system to run. HTML 5 and SVG are the future.

    I'm happy Apple made the decision, however we all know it wasn't well intention. But it still may sway public opinion, so yay.
    Reply
  • @ Nakal

    Adode already said they were not going todo this.

    After all the can't afford to cut off 40 % + of their customer base
    Reply
  • stratplaya
    Adobe should stop making a MAC version of Photoshop. That would get Apple's attention real quick!
    Reply