Adobe CEO downplays Flash, iOS feud, says Android tablets will dominate iPad
Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen said Thursday that the argument between Apple and his company over the lack of Adobe Flash on iOS is over, while also predicting that tablets running Google's Android will eventually overtake the iPad.
Narayen made the comments in an on-stage interview with journalist Walt Mossberg at the D9 conference hosted by All Things D. When asked by Mossberg whether "Adobe and Apple are done having the argument" over Flash, the executive said, "Absolutely."
Apple CEO Steve Jobs and Narayen engaged in a public war of words last year. Last year, Jobs published an open letter accusing Adobe Flash of not having "performed well on mobile devices." Narayen fired back with his own letter dismissing Jobs' comments as a "smokescreen" and blaming "the Apple operating system" for crashes that Jobs had attributed to Flash.
During Thursday's interview, Narayen asserted that the disagreement between the two companies hadn't ultimately been about the technology. "It's a business model issue, and it's about control of a platform," he said.
Narayen continued to stress Adobe's multi-platform strategy, noting that applications compiled in Adobe AIR can be easily converted for iOS and Apple's App Store. According to the executive, Apple has been approving such applications because it "still has control of the business model associated with it."
The Adobe chief touted the fact that his company will have 130 million phone devices that run Flash by the end of the year. However, Mossberg responded by interjecting that he had "yet to test a single one where Flash works really well,"
Narayen compared himself to "a kid in a candy shop" working with companies producing non-iPad tablets. ?I think the community is vibrant. I?m really excited,? he said.
"There is more power on these devices now than when we delivered Photoshop on a PC several years ago," Narayen said. "So we are clearly betting on these devices not just being consumption devices but also productivity devices for our community." Narayen promised that Adobe would bring all of its creative applications to tablets.
Just as with smartphones, Android, which supports Flash will eventually hit "an inflection point" with tablets and overtake the iPad, Narayen predicted. He also sees HP and RIM gaining traction with tablets in the enterprise.
Narayen made the comments in an on-stage interview with journalist Walt Mossberg at the D9 conference hosted by All Things D. When asked by Mossberg whether "Adobe and Apple are done having the argument" over Flash, the executive said, "Absolutely."
Apple CEO Steve Jobs and Narayen engaged in a public war of words last year. Last year, Jobs published an open letter accusing Adobe Flash of not having "performed well on mobile devices." Narayen fired back with his own letter dismissing Jobs' comments as a "smokescreen" and blaming "the Apple operating system" for crashes that Jobs had attributed to Flash.
During Thursday's interview, Narayen asserted that the disagreement between the two companies hadn't ultimately been about the technology. "It's a business model issue, and it's about control of a platform," he said.
Narayen continued to stress Adobe's multi-platform strategy, noting that applications compiled in Adobe AIR can be easily converted for iOS and Apple's App Store. According to the executive, Apple has been approving such applications because it "still has control of the business model associated with it."
The Adobe chief touted the fact that his company will have 130 million phone devices that run Flash by the end of the year. However, Mossberg responded by interjecting that he had "yet to test a single one where Flash works really well,"
Narayen compared himself to "a kid in a candy shop" working with companies producing non-iPad tablets. ?I think the community is vibrant. I?m really excited,? he said.
"There is more power on these devices now than when we delivered Photoshop on a PC several years ago," Narayen said. "So we are clearly betting on these devices not just being consumption devices but also productivity devices for our community." Narayen promised that Adobe would bring all of its creative applications to tablets.
Just as with smartphones, Android, which supports Flash will eventually hit "an inflection point" with tablets and overtake the iPad, Narayen predicted. He also sees HP and RIM gaining traction with tablets in the enterprise.
Comments
Ah, the good old days when Photoshop and most other Adobe software (I'm looking at you Illustrator and Acrobat Reader) wasn't a bloated piece of junk. Of course, this is what happens when there is no competition.
As for Flash, I foresee its heyday coming to an end. I don't know if it will ever completely disappear, but I think its dominance is going to fade. After all, when I watch something as simple as Hulu and the Flash plugin pegs a 2.0 GHz dual core C2D processor at 165% for a few seconds numerous times in a single episode that is not going to cut it on mobile devices.
Adobe. Fail.
When people compare iOS to Android, they're comparing 1 company VS everybody else, which includes hundreds of companies. That tells you how strong Apple is compared to everybody else.
Die Flash DIE!
Does anyone really use any apps from AIR? I cannot name a single one...
Adobe's CEO seems to think that Android phones and tablets will somehow be the savior of Flash when in fact the real danger is HTML5 and other tech that doesn't require expensive software to leverage becoming the standard.
No one is excited about Flash ...it's kind of the incumbent technology that's waiting to get put out to pasture once the young plucky stalwart comes to take the throne.
I use click2flash and the majority of flash content on sites that I visit are nothing but ads. I love seeing those grey boxes when I visit a site, because that tells me that it saved me from seeing some grotesque looking, extremely colorful, possibly blinking and flashing, annoying ad for something that I have zero interest in looking at. It's offensive. It's like getting flashed by a pervert in the street.
But that won't happen because the company is too important. So instead there will be a hostile takeover and guess who will buy them out?
Oh boy. This should be good.
he's probably a friend of Steve Ballmer...
...It's like getting flashed by a pervert in the street.
Nice pun LOL.
Narayen fired back with his own letter dismissing Jobs' comments as a "smokescreen" and blaming "the Apple operating system" for crashes that Jobs had attributed to Flash.
And the crashing on Windows?
The Adobe chief touted the fact that his company will have 130 million phone devices that run Flash by the end of the year. However, Mossberg responded by interjecting that he had "yet to test a single one where Flash works really well,"
and then there was silence. lol. Seriously, he looked like someone kicked his dog
I think Adobe Flash will fail only when users decided to use alternative methods.
Users are sheep and just want to watch the video or play the game. They don't really care about the format they just want the end product.
It's the developers that will decide on Flash. If they can find a tool that let's them do what they need to without flash they'll use it because the mobile market will be large enough that this makes sense.
Flash is why Terrorists hate America.
I think you're on to something.