Following months of criticism from developers over Apple’s decision to shun Flash support from its mobile devices, Steve Jobs has hit-back at Adobe in an essay posted recently on the Apple website.
Escalating the row between the two companies, Jobs stated that “Flash was designed for PCs using mice, not for touch screens using fingers.” He went on to say that “the mobile era is about low-power devices, touch interfaces and open web standards – all areas where Flash falls short.”
Shantanu Narayen, CEO of Adobe, fired back at Jobs remarks saying that “Apple’s arguments are really a smokescreen…It’s clear that it has nothing to do with technology.”Regarding Flash on the iPad and iPhone, Narayen went on to say that “It doesn’t benefit Apple, and that’s why you see this reaction.”
Many analysts are inclined to agree, and Jeffrey Hammond of Forrester Research has said that “they are trying to control their ecosystem…It’s all about control”.
Jobs has thrown Apple’s weight behind the “open” HTML5 standard, but it remains to be seen whether it will overtake Flash’s dominance of web media any time soon.