Quote:
Originally Posted by Fat Abe
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We can squabble all we want on this board. But Jobs attacks on Adobe are completely unprofessional, and to put it mildly, childish. Read this article from Business Week:
http://www.businessweek.com/technolo...429_384492.htm
Jobs' letter harms the reputation of Flash, said Hayes Roth, chief marketing officer for Landor Associates, a branding and design firm. "There's unquestionably damage to the brand—whether it's permanent damage is the question," he says. "This letter is now seen by untold millions around the world, who've been told—chapter and verse—what's superior about the technology that goes into Apple's products."
Flash is installed on about 98% of PCs connected to the Internet, according to Adobe. Flash also runs on more than 800 million mobile phones, manufactured by 19 of the top 20 handset makers—all except Apple. |
Moreover, there is NOTHING which can replace Flash today. Nothing.
I am not speaking about video. That can probably be replaced over a couple of years, albeit at considerable cost. It will be done at some point, anyway, and Adobe itself is adopting replacements.
But without Flash, we'll end up with every site looking like Amazon or Google. Which is fine for THAT kind of site, but not for other kinds.
HTML5 is far from capable of replicating everything Flash can currently do, and certainly not at reasonable cost. Anyone who tells you otherwise, has no clue what they are talking about.
And you are right. What SJ did with this letter is pursue his own agenda (chiefly in hiding from the technologically dimmer the real reason why Flash (
and Java, even though SJ conveniently forgets to mention it), are banned from the iPad).
But the manner that he employed certainly crossed a line in business civility.
I do believe Google will pull the rug out from under Steve, though, over the next few years. We'll just have to wait and see.