As you know, for months now Adobe and Apple have been having a verbal spat over the use of Flash on the iPhone and iPad devices. This morning on the Adobe site there is as an editorial piece about openness, innovation and Flash. On their site, Adobe talk about how PostScript® and PDF changed design and publishing, and Flash is now doing the same. They are currently working on the Open Screen Project in partnership with Google, Research In Motion, and other companies to make the web as we know it (which includes Flash) available on any mobile device.
The banner Adobe are waving on their site.
Also on the site this morning is an open letter from Chuck Geschke and John Warnock, the co-founders of Adobe. In the letter they say,
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.
They go on to explain how by publishing the specs for Flash anyone can make their own Flash player.
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.
It’s hard not to agree with Adobe, at this point Apple are losing friends and are starting to look like a big bad ogre. Of course it’s personal choice which mobile device you want to use, but I would like the ability to see the web in it’s full glory, even if it means occasionally pressing the “Skip” button on an over the top Flash splash screen.
And the debate rumbles on.
Jennifer FarleyJennifer Farley is a designer, illustrator and design instructor based in Ireland. She writes about design and illustration on her blog at Laughing Lion Design.
