Apple May Be Headed Down a Dangerous Roadby, aquatsr
We may recall that Apple (and Steve Jobs) has stated that Flash support
will never be on the iPad and iPhone. Apple claims that Flash harbors a large security risk and thus they cannot allow Flash support on their devices; of course they completely overlook the fact that most video content on the Internet utilizes Flash, citing HTML5 web-apps as the future of media content delivery.
In their latest response to Apple, yesterday Adobe took out advertisements in the
Wall Street Journal and the
New York Times as well as posting an
open letter accusing Apple of suppressing healthy competition.
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.
Adobe makes a good point here. Although they make a lot of proprietary software, the most popular of which is arguably Photoshop; Adobe still releases Flash specifications, PDF and Postscript details, PSD format specifications (as confusing and bad as they are) out to the general public for open development of players, readers, and creators of content and media. If an individual wants to open a PDF, they are not limited to Adobe Reader, there are a multitude of other programs out there for every flavor of operating system. Additionally, hardware and software manufacturers are only limited by the specifications of the media itself, not by Adobe's standards or even their development tools (though for Macromedia Flash and Photoshop the options are more limited).
Adobe
naysayers claim that Flash does not run as well on OS X so there is no reason for Apple to support it on its iPads and iPhones. This is a very thin excuse as Flash runs exceptionally on both Windows and Linux systems. That suggests that it is OS X that is the problem, or more precisely, Apple. Other excuses are that Adobe Photoshop CS3 does not run well on Mac OS X, and consequently, all Adobe products are incompatible (at worst) or not meant for (at best) Apple, and that Apple is right to deny support for such a platform.
These may all be valid arguments, and they definitely have some merit to them. The PSD format for Photoshop documents is incredibly bloated and makes it difficult for third-party applications to correctly open PSD files. Thus arguably Adobe enforces it's own limitation of other companies' products. While Adobe claims they are all for cross-platform compatibility, it is obvious they want their own applications on those variety of platforms, and making a difficult and complex format ensures that individuals and companies favor Adobe over competitors when it comes to creation, distribution and viewing of files associated with Adobe products.
However, what Apple is doing goes beyond concerns for a shoddy product and even beyond desire for an open, standardized content distribution (HTML5) specification. Apple isn't interested in open HTML5 development, not really. In Apple's world, HTML5 applications and delivery systems will be pioneered within Apple itself - this is evidenced by the
iAd presentation during the unveiling of iPhone OS 4.0
SDK. How were the ads made? Were they made by developers outside of Apple? Were the companies that were advertised consulted? Of course not, Apple wants to keep as much development as possible in-house. Further evidence of this is the announcement that development for Apple devices must be done using Apple's own proprietary tools - no outside tools. This effectively eliminated Flash-based applications for the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch.
To put it in terms that are easier to understand, Apple is essentially acting like Microsoft did when they were accused of unfairly monopolizing the computer industry several years ago during which the anti-trust investigations were conducted. Imagine Microsoft only allowing their own browser to run on their software, oh wait... Sound familiar? Now imagine Apple only allowing their applications and specially designed and Apple-approved software running on their iPhone-like devices. The tables sure have turned. When Apple was a small company struggling against the "oh-so-evil" behemoth Microsoft, we became endeared with the successes of the struggling company. When they started churning out quality products like the aluminium-backed iMacs and full-body Macbook and Macbook Pros we were delighted. The iPod almost single-handedly changed the music industry. And yet, the oppressed is turning into the oppressor.
This feud between Adobe and Apple may seem like a distant and slightly amusing diatribe between two technology leaders, but it could have dire consequences down the road for average consumers like us. First of all, the only HTML5 applications that are polished and ready are from Apple - how is that encouraging an open standard? Even if HTML5 is meant to be an open standard, it will be controlled initially by Apple (and perhaps Google, as well). Second, HTML5 from Apple has only been shown on Apple devices and has been limited to small, tightly controlled, applications. How good is it for distributing media under heavy load? We don't know.
HTML5 also introduces a new way of presenting multimedia with such tags as (<audio>) and (<video>) as a beginning to standardize the mark up of such content. Although these are new and very useful tags, their use in browsing technologies is still minimal.
Third, by refusing Flash support and development for iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch, Apple is forcing initially impartial developers - who just want to make a good, successful, product - to choose between developing for Apple or developing for everybody else (Flash). Since third-party tools are forbidden by Apple to convert existing code to Apple application code, this problem is even wider than the scope of Adobe and Flash. Fourth, by excluding non-Apple software and developers, Apple is establishing an "us-or-them" mentality, which goes against everything cross-platform development stands for. If Microsoft and Linux distros had done this with third-party software, we wouldn't see the great plethora of applications that run on both Linux and Windows today, and users wouldn't be able to choose an OS they like the best. Finally, while restricting access to proprietary content, and even making that content or format (like PSD) very hard to work with is somewhat understandable; open-development makes the experience better for everyone. Just look at PDFs, Postscript (.ps) files, Flash usage on the Internet, and the image editing marketplace - Adobe has revolutionized these fields by allowing access to products, documentation, and tools. Every major OS (except, perhaps, Windows) ships with a PDF viewer and Flash-viewing capabilities in-browser.
Apple is headed down a very slippery slope - fostering fear and distrust between companies that they work with: nVIDIA and Intel have been in disputes related to the processors used in the Macbook Pro line. Intel isn't happy whenever Apple chooses ARM for their embedded systems (iPhones, iPads) processors. Google and Apple have spats over applications that Google develops (the Latitude app) where Google made a really powerful app and Apple told them to tone it down. And Google is a company that freely provides maps and development APIs to Apple for use in their Maps that are so popular on the iPhone-like devices. Apple also screws over honest developers, like cartoonist Mark Fiore, whose app was initially rejected for making fun of public figures (he's a cartoonist!). Only public outrage made Apple reverse their decision and ask Fiore to resubmit his app. Adobe is only the latest in the laundry list of companies that Apple has decided to leave in the dust.
Note to Apple: It's no use being on the top if the list length is only 1. You can stand on the corpses of your allies and enemies, but nobody will care if you're the last one left.
Sources:
slashdoterictricadobebusiness insider[spoiler]aquatsr is an avid user of Apple Mac OS X software and related hardware, but also supports open development and constructive collaboration whenever possible.[/spoiler]
