Apple CEO Jobs opens up on Adobe Flash enmity

Apple CEO Steve Jobs released an open letter Thursday to outline the thinking behind his decision to block support for Adobe Systems' Flash multimedia platform across devices running Apple's iPhone operating system. The letter, first published on the Apple website, reads in part "Adobe claims that we are a closed system, and that Flash is open, but in fact the opposite is true... Adobe's Flash products are 100 percent proprietary. They are only available from Adobe, and Adobe has sole authority as to their future enhancement, pricing, etc. While Adobe's Flash products are widely available, this does not mean they are open, since they are controlled entirely by Adobe and available only from Adobe. By almost any definition, Flash is a closed system... Rather than use Flash, Apple has adopted HTML5, CSS and JavaScript--all open standards."

Jobs also takes exception to Adobe's contention that Apple mobile devices cannot access "the full web" because 75 percent of web video is written in Flash. "What they don't say is that almost all this video is also available in a more modern format, H.264, and viewable on iPhones, iPods and iPads. YouTube, with an estimated 40 percent of the web's video, shines in an app bundled on all Apple mobile devices, with the iPad offering perhaps the best YouTube discovery and viewing experience ever," Jobs argues, adding that while it is true Apple devices can't play Flash-based games, the App Store offers more than 50,000 games and entertainment titles.

From there, Jobs takes issue with Flash security, battery life and touchscreen interaction before arriving at what he calls "the most important reason"--control. "We know from painful experience that letting a third party layer of software come between the platform and the developer ultimately results in sub-standard apps and hinders the enhancement and progress of the platform," Jobs writes. "If developers grow dependent on third party development libraries and tools, they can only take advantage of platform enhancements if and when the third party chooses to adopt the new features. We cannot be at the mercy of a third party deciding if and when they will make our enhancements available to our developers."

Friction between Apple and Adobe dates back at least as far as March 2008, when Jobs contended the iPhone requires a media player more robust than the existing Flash mobile solution. Subsequent reports indicate Jobs privately dismissed Adobe as "lazy" and added that Apple doesn't support Flash because it's so buggy, blaming Flash as the culprit behind most Mac crashes and forecasting the platform will face extinction as the world moves to HTML5. The feud reached a crescendo earlier this month when Apple updated the terms of its iPhone developer agreement to mandate that all applications must be written to run directly on the iPhone platform, effectively banning cross-compiler translation tools like Adobe Systems' Flash Professional Creative Suite 5. Adobe later said it will cease investment on solutions targeting the iPhone platform.

For more on Jobs' thoughts on Flash:
- read this release

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