Adobe admits Apple's no-Flash policy could hurt business
Adobe has filed its latest quarterly Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) report, just one day after Apple previewed iPhone OS 4.0. In the document, Adobe outlines the risk that Apple's prohibition on Flash brings to the company. In the "Risk Factors" section of the filing, Adobe stated that exclusion of Flash on devices "such as the Apple iPhone or iPad, make it more difficult for our products to perform, and [if] our customers are persuaded to use alternative technologies, our business could be harmed."
Apple does not compete with Adobe over technologies like Flash. Apple's decision to leave Flash off its multi-touch devices is based on (according to Apple) the instability of Flash and the power drain Flash causes on portable devices.
The lack of Flash on the iPhone has been a realm of contention between Adobe and Apple since the iPhone launched in 2007. Now things have heated up again, since Apple's just-released beta version of the iPhone OS 4 SDK license bans ported Flash, Java, and Mono apps. A primary feature of Adobe's forthcoming Flash Professional CS5 is the ability to export Flash content into the native iPhone format. While Adobe has officially so far remained mum on this, their platform evangelist (who apparently had to be reined in by corporate, after his initial post did not include adequate disclaimers) has told Apple to "Go screw yourself."
