Adobe working to sabotage HTML5 - Page 5

Approaching software development simply from a numbers standpoint is actually a terrible business model. Adobe sells a niche product & overall PC numbers don't really mean much, they have to look at what user types actually use their product.

All that being said though, Adobe mostly abandoned Apple because they were failing to progress & innovate the way they did back when they were actually Adobe's preferred platform. A lot of Mac users forget that Apple had a dark day in their history where they almost went the way of the dodo. Now that Macs are making a come back Adobe is taking up interest again.

Also, Apple has had a lot of major platform changes that have actually made development difficult for Adobe. Windows has remained largely unchanged, they've just been throwing a lot of lipstick on that pig. There are also differences in release times revolving around OS release dates.

Point being, it simply isn't as simple as overall market share or Adobe "abandoning Macs". Good graphics designers have recognized this & realized that having the new CS version on their platform first doesn't mean they are going to be able to create better graphics. Printing & Graphics industries have long used Macs because when really taxed the Macs just perform.

Why? The blog posted nothing new. Larry still hasn't made public his private emails to the list so it's just he said she said stuff from both sides. Until those messages are made public only the members who can see them know what was actually written. Everything you see outside is just spin on what happened after the fact. That includes what Google wrote but really it's up to Larry to release the original emails for all to see.

Anyone that has been on standard committees understand there's a bit of sausage making process in there along with the usual backchannel chatter and deals and that some participants are more "equal" than others.

My guess is that Larry made some veiled (and therefore deniable) threats to private mailing lists to the effect that if Google pushes Adobe too hard that there are all these "issues" that could be raised. You know, ones that are meant to "improve the process" and fix a few "problems with the spec". Here's a little taste hixie: "I don't think that MicroData, RDFa and Canvas2D are in scope for the charter." I'm going to mention this in the public lists without making a formal complaint...but you know, I really could do a formal complaint but I'm a nice guy who want's to work with everyone and make sure HTML5 is the bestest spec ever...but gee, rechartering the group DOES take a long time doesn't it?

Hickson's twitter would then be calling Adobe's bluff..."try that and you'll look like the bad guy...here's a little taste of how easy that will be...".

Which is exactly what happened (Adobe looking like the bad guy regardless of what really happened) and why Adobe has been playing defense and denying being obstructionist ever since Friday. Ooops.

HTML 5 is a bag of hurt.

Not really. It's just a big jump standards document-wise as HTML was allowed to meander on it's own for way too long. But quite a bit of it is already in use, just not standardized.

Business concerns will force MS to update IE for HTML5 or IT departments will switch to FF in droves for several reasons.

Macs market share wasn't the problem. Adobe began to invest more Windows back when Windows 95 took over the world. At the time it appeared Apple was going to go out of business. So Adobe bet more on Windows than it did on Apple.

Market share doesn't necessarily correlate directly with sales. Adobe sells just as much of its professional software to Mac users as it does to Windows users. From a percentage standpoint more Mac users are content creators than Windows users.


A lot of software was originally made for the Mac before Windows as we know it existed: Photoshop, Word, Illustrator, Excel, Avid. Windows versions were not created until Windows 95.

There are many great applications that are Mac only and don't have an exact Windows compliment.

Its a messy process because there isn't one company developing it. So you have different people with conflicting interests and views trying to come to an agreement for what HTML5 should be. That is the good and bad of open source.

Maybe a better computer would solve your problems?

And with iSteve's recent remarks bout them, I think it increasingly unlikely that they will devote resources to such a small segment of computer users.

From what I have seen, most mobile platforms will have Flash, leaving Apple products as floating derelicts on a sea of blue lego pieces.

Yeah? I find that difficult to believe, given that Macs are a tiny sliver of the computer world.

Do you have a cite for your claim?

Well it isn't as though Adobe's customer base is all that large. There aren't very many people spendings $600 on professional software suites. There was a report from some years ago about Adobe's professional sales, cannot find it now.

A disproportionate amount of Macs are used by people who create media and graphics. If you worked in any of the creative or graphic fields you would see what I'm talking about.

Back in 2004 Adobe's CEO stated up to 25%. That was when PPC was starting to have performance growth issues and Mac marketshare was considerably lower than today. I think Apple now sells more in a quarter than they did in an entire year in 2004 so it's likely increased in the past 6 years. Then there is also the stats stating Macs in the US account for over 93% of the all PCs over $1000, where you're more likely going to find graphical professionals.

Even without knowing specifics you'd think a self-proclaimed geniuss would have considered Adobe's professional market wouldn't include the cheap notebook and netbooks that make up the majority of PC sales. \

Something to add to the list is that roughly half of photographers (amateur and pro) are Mac users.

Macs were known to be a mainstay of graphic design users, even in Windows-centric businesses. If anyone has Macs, it's that group. So it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone if Adobe's business disproportionately sells more Mac software than most other software shops.

I'm not a genius, I am an iGenius. Just like those genii who selflessly eschew Nobel Prizes or careers as Brain Surgeons and Rocket Scientists to work as a PBTC in mApple stores at shopping malls.

It's a friggin joke, man. A lampoon. An indirect reference to an absurd designation by Apple.

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