Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch reportedly leaving company for Apple [ux2]

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
Adobe has confirmed that its Chief Technology Officer Kevin Lynch is leaving the company and will be joining the ranks at Apple in the near future.

Kevin Lynch
Source: Adobe


Update: Adobe has sent word to The Next Web that effective March 22, Lynch will be exiting the company for a position at Apple:
Kevin Lynch, Adobe CTO, is leaving the company effective March 22 to take a position at Apple. We will not be replacing the CTO position; responsibility for technology development lies with our business unit heads under the leadership of Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen. Bryan Lamkin, who has recently returned to Adobe, will assume responsibilities for cross company research and technology initiatives as well as Corporate Development. We wish Kevin well in this new chapter of his career.
Update 2: Apple spokesman Steve Dowling confirmed the hire to AllThingsD, saying that Lynch will join Apple as vice president of technology. In his new role, Lynch will report to Apple's Senior Vice President of Technologies Bob Mansfield, who oversees Apple?s wireless and semiconductor teams.

A tweet sent out by CNBC reporter Jon Fortt was first to mention the rumored move, with a follow-up tweet claiming the departure will occur later this week.

According to his profile on Adobe's website, Lynch joined the company when it acquired Macromedia in 2005 and currently oversees Adobe's Research and Experience Design teams. The executive is also known to have been a strong proponent of Flash and was one of the louder voices criticizing Apple's ongoing quest to deprecate the software from the Mac platform.

It is unclear what position Lynch will take at Apple, though recent management stir-ups, including the ousting of former iOS chief Scott Forstall, have left a number of posts open.

Apple has yet to issue a statement regarding Lynch's move.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 50
    originalgoriginalg Posts: 383member
    After playing a major role in the death of Flash, Apple hires Adobe CTO, who subsequently resurrects Flash as a Apple branded product that only works on iOS browsers. /s

    But seriously, please have extremely high standards now that you're working for Apple. My main impression of Adobe is from Flash and Acrobat, and it's not a good one.
  • Reply 2 of 50
    hmmhmm Posts: 3,405member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by OriginalG View Post



    After playing a major role in the death of Flash, Apple hires Adobe CTO, who subsequently resurrects Flash as a Apple branded product that only works on iOS browsers. /s



    But seriously, please have extremely high standards now that you're working for Apple. My main impression of Adobe is from Flash and Acrobat, and it's not a good one.




    Did we really need to start this off with condescension? If you look at Adobe's upper management, it's not exactly run by the engineers, or I should say the important decisions aren't really made by them. If you're going to spout off nonsense about high standards, at least do some research into the specific person that was recruited.

  • Reply 3 of 50
    tylerk36tylerk36 Posts: 1,037member


    Apple iSuit.  The new graphics suite by Apple.  Yours today for $29.99.

  • Reply 4 of 50
    shogunshogun Posts: 362member
    iLife '14?
  • Reply 5 of 50
    geekdadgeekdad Posts: 1,131member


    With all the problems Adobe products have had on OSX........all the security holes.....

  • Reply 6 of 50
    mstonemstone Posts: 11,510member


    Perhaps he will work on the iCloud service.

  • Reply 7 of 50
    mstonemstone Posts: 11,510member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by geekdad View Post


    With all the problems Adobe products have had on OSX........all the security holes.....



    I seem to be installing a lot of Apple security fixes too. Let me think...when was that? Oh that's right...this morning, last week, and the week before that.

  • Reply 8 of 50
    stelligentstelligent Posts: 2,680member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by hmm View Post




    Did we really need to start this off with condescension? If you look at Adobe's upper management, it's not exactly run by the engineers, or I should say the important decisions aren't really made by them. If you're going to spout off nonsense about high standards, at least do some research into the specific person that was recruited.



    I agree with the first sentence. But as for Adobe not being run by engineers, what about their CEO? If you are going to spout off about how a company is run, at least do some research into the background of the very top decision maker.

  • Reply 9 of 50
    chandra69chandra69 Posts: 638member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by OriginalG View Post



    After playing a major role in the death of Flash, Apple hires Adobe CTO, who subsequently resurrects Flash as a Apple branded product that only works on iOS browsers. /s



    But seriously, please have extremely high standards now that you're working for Apple. My main impression of Adobe is from Flash and Acrobat, and it's not a good one.


    It is so sad that you are thinking of Flash.  It is about Creative Applications Suite!

  • Reply 10 of 50


    Why doesn't Apple buy Adobe?


     


    Or is this a prelude to that?

  • Reply 11 of 50
    philboogiephilboogie Posts: 7,675member
    marklouis wrote: »
    Why doesn't Apple buy Adobe?

    Or is this a prelude to that?

    Your post would be greatly appreciated if you'd stated your reasoned thinking on this, why they would be an asset to Apple, if the products would change much or if they would be integrated into the Apple Eco system.

    I don't know myself, but can't seem to figure out why they would be an asset to Apple. They are a hardware company. Of course they sell software, and the driving force for selling their hardware is their software, but I simply don't see what Adobe could bring that would make Apple sell more computers.
  • Reply 12 of 50
    lightknightlightknight Posts: 2,312member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by mstone View Post


    I seem to be installing a lot of Apple security fixes too. Let me think...when was that? Oh that's right...this morning, last week, and the week before that.





    And? Shows that Apple is proactive on fixing bugs and security holes... Apple moving towards a strategy more similar to Linux's than to Microsoft's seems a very, very good thing to me.


     


    Or you'd rather have like one security patch a decade?

  • Reply 13 of 50
    gazoobeegazoobee Posts: 3,754member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post



    ... Lynch joined the company when it acquire (sic) Macromedia in 2005 and currently oversees Adobe's Research and Experience Design teams. The executive is also known to have been a strong proponent of Flash ...


     


    These things alone would seem to make him a horrible candidate for a job at Apple.  He was at Adobe through the worst part of their history when their corporate behaviour and their product was at it's worst, he was responsible for the teams that made some of the worst UI designs in computer history and he is an advocate of Flash, one of the worst plug-ins ever made.  

  • Reply 14 of 50
    gazoobeegazoobee Posts: 3,754member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by PhilBoogie View Post





    Your post would be greatly appreciated if you'd stated your reasoned thinking on this, why they would be an asset to Apple, if the products would change much or if they would be integrated into the Apple Eco system.



    I don't know myself, but can't seem to figure out why they would be an asset to Apple. They are a hardware company. Of course they sell software, and the driving force for selling their hardware is their software, but I simply don't see what Adobe could bring that would make Apple sell more computers.


     


    The code base for Adobe's products is a many year's old nightmare using ancient technology.  A lot of their UI is written in Flash for cripes sake.  


     


    If Apple wanted to buy something like that they would do better to buy Pixelmator than Photoshop.  Adobe's stuff would have to be re-written from the ground up.  Their employees are not worth anything either.  

  • Reply 15 of 50

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by mstone View Post


    Perhaps he will work on the iCloud service.



    If that were true, he'd be reporting to Eddy Cue but he isn't. He's going to be VP of Technology and reporting to Bob Mansfield so his job doesn't seem all that related to software.

  • Reply 16 of 50
    mdriftmeyermdriftmeyer Posts: 7,503member
    ``Apple as vice president of technology''

    He's taking a demotion to work for Apple. He needs to earn it.
  • Reply 17 of 50
    mdriftmeyermdriftmeyer Posts: 7,503member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by markLouis View Post


    Why doesn't Apple buy Adobe?


     


    Or is this a prelude to that?



     


    Cause it's a pile of dung and Apple doesn't invest billions when it takes over any company. By design and practice they buy small companies for specific and unique technologies, not a portfolio of some good and a bag of hurt.

  • Reply 18 of 50
    marklouis wrote: »
    Why doesn't Apple buy Adobe?

    Or is this a prelude to that?
    Yes, buy Adobe and merge Final Cut Pro 7 and Premiere Pro into one great pro editing app then Final Cut X can remain for the amateurs it was designed for. Merge all the Apple and Adobe creative apps so Apple owns the best creative programs out there.
  • Reply 19 of 50

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Gazoobee View Post




    Quote:

    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post



    ... Lynch joined the company when it acquire (sic) Macromedia in 2005 and currently oversees Adobe's Research and Experience Design teams. The executive is also known to have been a strong proponent of Flash ...


     


    These things alone would seem to make him a horrible candidate for a job at Apple.  He was at Adobe through the worst part of their history when their corporate behaviour and their product was at it's worst, he was responsible for the teams that made some of the worst UI designs in computer history and he is an advocate of Flash, one of the worst plug-ins ever made.  



    This was exactly my reaction too!


     


    WTF? I hope this doesn't become another Dixonesque hire. image

  • Reply 20 of 50
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,310moderator
    marklouis wrote: »
    Why doesn't Apple buy Adobe?

    Or is this a prelude to that?

    There's a part of me that thinks the CS Suite and Apple's ProApps would fit together very well but we've all seen what Apple does with their ProApps. I wouldn't like to see that happen with the CS Suite.

    It's the same cycle they do with everything. When Apple has something new, they shout it from the rooftops. Then it gets the yearly updates. Then the updates slip to every other year. Then it gets to that last version and people start to get a bit anxious. The time draws out and before you know it, it's been 3 years since Aperture 3.

    Software does tend to stabilise and doesn't require the constant addition of features and that has mostly happened to the Adobe apps, Office apps etc but the major revisions on Apple software just let you know there's no chance of an EOL decision. Aperture is at least getting plenty of minor updates that people don't have to buy so that's probably safe but Apple taking over control of the CS Suite could be more damaging than beneficial.

    It could seriously damage Microsoft if they dropped Windows support but that's a double-edged sword because it would encourage people to look for alternatives to the CS Suite. It doesn't seem likely to me that this is a prelude to a takeover but strange things have happened in the past. I do find it a bit odd that he's working with Mansfield though - he works with hardware.
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