Adobe CEO dismisses Steve Jobs' comments on Flash as a 'smokescreen'
Responding to a public letter issued Thursday by Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs, Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen said he believes that any crashes of Flash in Mac OS X are not related to his software, but instead are the fault of "the Apple operating system."
Narayen spoke exclusively with The Wall Street Journal Thursday afternoon after Jobs' letter, entitled "Thoughts on Flash," was posted on Apple's website. The Adobe CEO said he believes that multi-platform options like Flash will "eventually prevail," because they allow developers to write software that can be used on a number of devices, rather than being tied to Apple's iPhone OS ecosystem through the App Store.
"We have different views of the world," Narayan reportedly said of Adobe and Apple. "Our view of the world is multi-platform."
The CEO also disagreed with Jobs' claim that Flash is the No. 1 cause of crashes on the Mac, suggesting that the issues are instead related to Mac OS X. He also said claims about Flash draining battery life of mobile devices were "patently false."
Narayen dismissed Jobs' stated problems with the technology behind Flash as a "smokescreen." He said that more than 100 applications currently available on the App Store were made using Adobe's porting software, to be publicly released with the forthcoming Creative Suite 5. Apple banned the use of intermediary development tools when it modified its developers agreement for iPhone OS 4. Adobe has since abandoned development of that feature.
Thursday morning, Apple posted a lengthy letter from Jobs, in which the company co-founder suggested Flash was a lingering relic from a dying era. Jobs said that though the Web format was created for the PC, it "falls short" in the mobile era, dominated by low-power devices, touchscreen interfaces and open Web standards.
Jobs accused Flash of being closed and proprietary to Adobe. Narayen, again, disagreed with Jobs, calling his comments "amusing" and stating that Flash is an "open specification."
The Adobe executive said he believe's Adobe's cross-platform stance is more beneficial to businesses and developers, allowing to make their software available on a range of devices rather than deciding on just one. "It doesn't benefit Apple, and that's why you see this reaction," he said.
Narayen spoke exclusively with The Wall Street Journal Thursday afternoon after Jobs' letter, entitled "Thoughts on Flash," was posted on Apple's website. The Adobe CEO said he believes that multi-platform options like Flash will "eventually prevail," because they allow developers to write software that can be used on a number of devices, rather than being tied to Apple's iPhone OS ecosystem through the App Store.
"We have different views of the world," Narayan reportedly said of Adobe and Apple. "Our view of the world is multi-platform."
The CEO also disagreed with Jobs' claim that Flash is the No. 1 cause of crashes on the Mac, suggesting that the issues are instead related to Mac OS X. He also said claims about Flash draining battery life of mobile devices were "patently false."
Narayen dismissed Jobs' stated problems with the technology behind Flash as a "smokescreen." He said that more than 100 applications currently available on the App Store were made using Adobe's porting software, to be publicly released with the forthcoming Creative Suite 5. Apple banned the use of intermediary development tools when it modified its developers agreement for iPhone OS 4. Adobe has since abandoned development of that feature.
Thursday morning, Apple posted a lengthy letter from Jobs, in which the company co-founder suggested Flash was a lingering relic from a dying era. Jobs said that though the Web format was created for the PC, it "falls short" in the mobile era, dominated by low-power devices, touchscreen interfaces and open Web standards.
Jobs accused Flash of being closed and proprietary to Adobe. Narayen, again, disagreed with Jobs, calling his comments "amusing" and stating that Flash is an "open specification."
The Adobe executive said he believe's Adobe's cross-platform stance is more beneficial to businesses and developers, allowing to make their software available on a range of devices rather than deciding on just one. "It doesn't benefit Apple, and that's why you see this reaction," he said.
Comments
Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen said he believes that any crashes of Flash in Mac OS X are not related to his software, but instead are the fault of "the Apple operating system."
I seem to recall Mozilla stating that Flash was the number cause of crashes along all platforms.
The Adobe executive said he believe's Adobe's cross-platform stance is more beneficial to businesses and developers, allowing to make their software available on a range of devices rather than deciding on just one.
Adobe exec makes case for shovelware.
Eric
see the deleterious effects of Flash on a Mac.
It's done...stick a fork in it.
Responding to a public letter issued Thursday by Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs, Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen said he believes that any crashes of Flash in Mac OS X are not related to his software, but instead are the fault of "the Apple operating system."...
Wow. I know it's Adobe, but I would have expected a substantive and lucid response.
The CEO's comments are as duplicitous, vague and misleading as Jobs' are clear and precise.
Shantanu Narayen = teckstud?
I rather like this idea of his.
I do feel a twinge of remorse over losing those whopping 100 flash apps in the App Store, though.
There... I feel better now.
Narayen told the Journal that he views Jobs' letter as an "extraordinary attack," and questioned what Adobe did to deserve the letter.
Narayen did not say this. The very first line in the WSJ interview:
Alan Murray begins the interview, calling Mr. Jobs's missive an "extraordinary attack." He asks Mr. Narayen what Adobe has done to deserve this.
New open standards created in the mobile era, such as HTML5, will win on mobile devices (and PCs too). Perhaps Adobe should focus more on creating great HTML5 tools for the future, and less on criticizing Apple for leaving the past behind.
Apple CEO, Steve Jobs
Response:
No thank you! We will continue to keep our heads firmly embedded in our buttocks.
Adobe CEO, Shantanu Narayen
Narayen told the Journal that he views Jobs' letter as an "extraordinary attack," and questioned what Adobe did to deserve the letter.
Adobe has never showed what they think about Apple's decision on the matter? Newer pointed towards Cupertino in any situation? Newer has any representative of Adobe discussed Apple?
bingo...we have a winner.
Go Adobe.
What we have here are two closed, proprietary systems that aren't working very well together so they are pointing fingers.
It's like Republicans and Democrats pointing at eachother and yelling "sellout!"
They are both right.
Engadget's JooJoo Review (for a real kick check out the video of Flash performance)
"First, it causes the entire tablet to get quite warm (especially when playing Flash video) and then it murders its battery life. The JooJoo's integrated three-cell battery repeatedly lasted 2.5 hours (just as we predicted!) during our moderate use, which included surfing the Web and playing short videos. JooJoo claims you can get 5 hours if you avoid Flash entirely, but that sort of defeats the purpose, right?"
bingo...we have a winner.
Go Apple.
It's a free country. Apple isn't forced to support any outdated technologies (SCSI, floppies, Flash...)
"It doesn't benefit Apple, and that's why you see this reaction," he said.
True, true.. Adobe shot first in public though, didn't they? By commenting in public that Apple is trying to hurt Adobe. Like if Apple's policy is designed to specifically shut out Adobe, and nothing else.
Well well... Actually I'm glad it's not on Apple's Mobile OS X, after all it's (like in 99% of the case) just for commercials and games, and I completely agree with Steve Jobs in that Adobe should make an HTML5 software. It's a golden opportunity. I hope they realize it in time, for their own good.
Besides, I think Adobe's multi platform strategy shines through in the whole CS suite. They got over 20 years of development and research for this.. and still their software crash, misbehave, have a slow and sluggish UI. I imagine this is in part the result of their own multi platform strategy.
What's to be said for a CEO in denial? Adobe's products reflect his "there's no problem" attitude.
Flash needs fucking hardware acceleration to increase it's speed so people can watch video without dragging their computers through the mud.
Safari has been much more stable since I blocked Flash...
Eric
Same here, Eric.
I do however agree on Steve on this one, in regards to poor flash performance, anecdotal or otherwise, even with latest 10.1 release its still poorly optimized (though a little better).
On the other hand I can understand a lot of adobe's arguments about cross-porting code, I guess it does make it easier for moving platforms. But at the end of the day how much do Apple Dev kits cost these days? $99? Dirt cheap if you ask me.
And when your treating mac users as second class citizens with said ported code thats fairly shoddy, why should Steve be servile to Adobes strategy.
At the end of the day, this whole pulava could be solved by somebody pulling there head out of the sand and making some cracking html5 development software, you could still have your web authoring Monopoly cake and eat it Adobe if you act now!
Either way its gonna be an interesting few months...
(My 3rd ever comment dont bite! eeek!)