Adobe targets Apple in ad campaign launched today, publishes open letter from founders
By Joshua Topolsky 
posted May 13th 2010 7:50AM
posted May 13th 2010 7:50AM
So, it's clear this issue isn't going to die out any time soon, and it's also clear that Adobe is going to go to great lengths to defend and protect its cash-cow. Of course, if they really want this message to hit home to the core iPad and iPhone users out there, they're going to need to run that ad in HTML5.We believe that consumers should be able to freely access their favorite content and applications, regardless of what computer they have, what browser they like, or what device suits their needs. No company - no matter how big or how creative - should dictate what you can create, how you create it, or what you can experience on the web.
When markets are open, anyone with a great idea has a chance to drive innovation and find new customers. Adobe's business philosophy is based on a premise that, in an open market, the best products will win in the end - and the best way to compete is to create the best technology and innovate faster than your competitors.
We believe that Apple, by taking the opposite approach, has taken a step that could undermine this next chapter of the web - the chapter in which mobile devices outnumber computers, any individual can be a publisher, and content is accessed anywhere and at any time.
In the end, we believe the question is really this: Who controls the World Wide Web? And we believe the answer is: nobody - and everybody, but certainly not a single company.
Note: As you should know, the ad sales and editorial teams at Engadget are separate entities, so this campaign was as much a surprise to us as it probably is to you!
@Justfinethanku
Make a tool for HTML5? Apple is not for proprietary tech? Boy,you have no idea what you are talking about, do you?
I'm designing a website with the HTML5 doctype in Dreamweaver, an adobe product, complete with canvas and other newer technologies. And H2.64 is as propritary as they come, with a committee receiving royalties and all. Please do more research before posting such stupidity.
@zeroinfinity2 It's no use. They think what Apple tells them to think and do so when they are told. They actually believe the "Adobe is anti-HTML 5 " - myth , conveniently forgetting that company's webdesign suite Dreamweaver and the fact Adobe is member of the HTML 5 development and implementation platform .
@Justfinethanku And lets not forget that purchasing Adobe Flash Professional (or Adobe Flash Builder) is NOT required to make a flash site (or ad, or anything). You can do these things with free software using Flex and ActionScript. The only thing adobe controls is the language itself, which I'm OK with (as it isn't the dominant language on the web). As a matter of fact I am more pissed when companies like MSFT or Apple decide how open standards should be implemented in their own browsers. IE is obviously the worst offender when it comes to that, though they are getting better.
@zeroinfinity2
Are you kidding me? I understand where you're coming from, being a developer and all, but this Adobe ad campaign is nothing short of sheer hypocrisy (sp)
What I am saying is Apple has every right in the world to control the device they make and sell, Adobe has no right to force themselves onto that device first through filing a complaint with the government and second by running this hypocritical ad campaign that draws more attention to the fact that Adobe wants control of the Internet themselve than anything else.
Don't get me wrong, maybe I'm missing something here but "doing a little more research" isn't going to change any of the facts. I don't post ANYWHERE unless I've done my research.
You are essentially calling me a troll for not agreeing with you, crazy.
@Justfinethanku The complain Adobe filed was not to get Flash onto the iDevices. It was to allow third party applications for creating apps for the app store (Which apple allowed till recently). Something that I fully agree (the complaint that is). You bash Adobe for only allowing Adobe products to create flash (which they DO NOT DO!), yet you support Apple doing the same thing for the app store?
@Justfinethanku
I am essentially calling you a troll for not knowing what you are talking about as far as the technologies involved.
I don't really care about your opinions, just get your facts right beforehand.
@zeroinfinity2 An open standard doesn't have to bee free or patent free. GSM/UMTS has many patents attached to it and they are not free. I would still say that GSM is an open standard.
Adobe,
Talk is cheap.
The iPhone has been out just shy of three years.
Where's full mobile Flash? Why has it taken this long? I have a Palm Pre and I'm still waiting...
Apple has been burned before by you guys. Steve Jobs holds a grudge and never forgets. You are only now figuring this out?
@busdriver71 Hmm strange, no answer from the flash fans yet? Wonder why...
@ninja98 Because we've all switched to android.
The only thing that's causing all of this is the lack of good video decoding within the flash player. Otherwise, Flash is just fine. Just do it, Adobe. Make video in Flash better. I just can't imagine why this is taking so long. Make it better and eventually you and Apple will be friends again. Hopefully.
Aren't the 2 images contradictory?
@drewmcd621 Not if you are a hypocrite.
Wow, LMAO! Adobe really is showing its desperation with this move. Ads? Really Adobe? Is this a joke?
@sonola777 It's not a joke, that's why it's funny.
This reeks of desperation. If they were truly confident in their products they'd simply keep churning out better and better versions of flash and let the market decide what's best.
Since flash is indeed garbage, and they know it, they can only whine about not being part of Apple's game.
Ads...what ads? ***gets back in bed with Adblock***
As far as "Of course, if they really want this message to hit home to the core iPad and iPhone users out there, they're going to need to run that ad in HTML5."...kinda makes more of a point that they can't see it and that others know they can't see it. :-)
--Al-
flash is just a fantastic app... apple is wrong... don't believe the hype...
Kwame, no offence, but you're biased.
(That's me calling you a fanboy in the nicest possible way)
I see the merit in both sides but as a developer myself I would love to see flash die out. I hate seeing sites that rely on it when there are so much better ways. I used to live and breath adobe. I owned the web developer suite. Their stuff crashed all the time and I decided to make a change. Now I develop much better sites all without their products. Doing that force me to learn new ways of doing things and not useing flash as a crutch.
Open letter to Adobe from me:
I believe that you Adobe should get your head out of your ass, and start making products that actually works, and don´t crashes on me all the freaking time.
I believe you should do a re-makeover of your CS package which is ginormos, and slow as hell.
Last but not least, i believe that you should stop your never ending whining about Apple, and just get moving. You have had over 10 years to fix the ongoing problems with your apps, yet you did nothing.
You suck Adobe.... nuff said.
@bingster Well tell me, do you have better solutions in mind? Much of the software Adobe has developed is now by far the most successful in the industry. If better alternatives existed that wouldn't be the case.
As for flash, do you really think HTML5 in its current state is capable of replacing flash? Don't be ridiculous - flash is a lot more than videos and can offer capabilities which are not currently possible with pure HTML5/JavaScript etc. Maybe it will in a few years time - which would be great - but right now flash is the best thing we've got.
@tomer
Pixelmator does the job for me. Much faster, a whole lot cheaper with features that Adobe can only dream about.
Html5 replaces Flash video. Javascript frameworks like Mootools or Jquery with the magic of CSS, replaces animations.
If you want to stick with the dying horse called Adobe / Flash, be my guest dude.
@bingster Clearly uneducated. Have you actually tried any extensive javascript by likes of jquery etc on a mobile platform? Hint: go see what happens.
@bingster
HAHAHAHAH.
You're obviously not a creative. Poseur.
@tomer Here are a few examples of what can be done with HTML5. In particular check out the first one:
http://www.craftymind.com/2010/04/20/blowing-up-html5-video-and-mapping-it-into-3d-space/
http://alteredqualia.com/canvasmol/
http://www.kesiev.com/akihabara/
@fpad77
I'm using the jquery framework and plugins extensively and it works fine for my palm pre. I agree that flash won't be replaced anytime soon, but you have a bad example here.
@portorikan
I've seen those before, and they are very impressive. Call me back though when those examples work for more than 60% of internet users.
@portorikan, and all of those examples eat far more CPU (at times more than 80% on a dual core) and you barely get 5 fps at transitions, and they don't work in all browsers... While Flash has been doing that for years, you get a solid fps and you'll hardly get over 30% CPU on avg...
@bingster LMFAO!!! http://is.gd/c7PKF
Come on apple! Let the people decide!!!
@ChocNut Haven't they already? Especially considering all the hundred million iphone, ipod, ipad users who are fine without flash (many of them don't even know what it is).
@Drummertist
I'm an iPhone use (using it right now)r and I hate the lack of Flash support. Honestly, I hate Apple. This is the last device I'll waste my money on from that company.
I say bull crap Adobe. You have already lost my $199. I will not be upgrading to photoshop CS5. Instead I will be spending the money on the iPad & iPhone AppStore.
@zeroinfinity2 It's much more true than Apple's mobile devices controlling the web.
When El Jobso called Adobe lazy, I said to myself "omg, calling names this way was not necessary".
But my 64bit Kubuntu still lacks flash, because the lazy Adobe could never care less about it's alpha plugin for 64bit linux, and I don't have the time to implement other tricks to get it going (ok, I admit, I'm lazy too).
But nevertheless, (Adobe = freakin' lazy) = true
It's not like all the mobile phones are produced by Apple.
It got market share because people agree its alright to go without flash.
People have decided, we don't need you to speak for us.
Screw you, hypocrite!
I click 'Learn More' on the Adobe ad and it does nothing.... Flash really does suck!
adobe is so right in this issue. apple is trying to control the web...
@mhunterjr How, precisely, are Apple trying to control the web? I'd love to see your answer.
@Dale P Me too, me too.
@Atkins well its obvious that their market share is growing, and their presence is definitely being felt. Instead of allowing multiple media solutions on their devices (like on other platforms), their hand picking which ones will succeed in the future. For example, Apples decision to keep flash off of the ipad has influenced many content providers to convert their web content to HTML5. Instead of allowing the technologies to coexist and allowing consumers and developers to choose which ones they want to use, Apple has chosen for them.
Their recent behavior (prohibiting all cross-compiler software on iphoneOS apps) shows that they have a muscle-headed control oriented mentality--If you want to reach our consumers, you will do as we say, whether its on the web or in the app store. Make no mistakes, as apple continues to expand, they'll start making more demands.
@mhunterjr and don't get me wrong, i'm not trying to imply that Flash is the better technology here, i'm saying that Apple is effectively stifling the competition.
@mhunterjr I think it's a head start for better technology. Someone had to do it, people see how much of a cash cow the ipad is & developers are like "there using this new technology let's see how to make it work" and they'll have a he'D start compared to those who still want to use flash because they wanna price something to apple. Html5 isn't perfect yet, but with more folks behind it will get better before we know it. And yes it's open, isn't that why people love android becaue it's open (even though is has serious fragmentation issues because of too many devices) lol I had to put that in there. What I'm saying is let's start with something new, just like when the 1st iMac got rid of flopp disk, people were pissed & now look at it
@Leroysboy you guys gotta be more objective. My comment had nothing to do with which technology is better or has the most potential. I'm just factually stating that apple behavior is stifling competition. If adobe is to die, it should be because developers don't want to use it anymore, or because consumers don't want to use it anymore. Not because apple mandate.
And as for the notion that "Apple only controls their web experience" is trash. We all know that their influence over devs (especially in the tablet space) is such that their platform will be the lowest common denominator when it comes to development.
@Doctor Kwame Nkrumah i never said that moving to open standards is bad. in fact, i believe just the opposite. But I also believe it isn't Apple place to decide when/if that switch will occur.
@mhunterjr
Fair enough. Given the explanation of the original comment I would agree with you. In this case I don't see Apple's attempt to control the Web to be a bad thing (not least because they don't control HTML5 itself) but I do agree that by "forcing" developers to adopt HTML5 if they want their content to be viewed on the iPhone/iPad, they are effectively causing a shift in the technologies used on the World Wide Web that might not have occurred otherwise.
WE LOVE ADOBE.
What we don't love is a company that makes buggy, and power-eating software then claims it works perfectly across all platforms. We don't love having to wait for a third party, intermediary layer to update their software so it works when we update our OS. We don't love the fact that we ASKED you to give us an example of Flash running well on a mobile device and it took you THREE YEARS to finally show it.
Apple
"Adobe's business philosophy is based on a premise that, in an open market, the best products will win in the end - and the best way to compete is to create the best technology and innovate faster than your competitors."
Isn't Apple the one backing the new, innovative technology here, while Adobe is backing the old hat? Therefore, by Adobe's own logic, they should lose and html5 should win in the end.