Adobe, Apple debate on Flash on Apple devices
Since the release of the new Apple iPad, people have continued to raise their disappointment in the fact that Flash won't run on these devices.
Are Adobe really that worried?
To be looking at this from another angle I don't believe Adobe are that worried, they have a very tight integration with the Flash platform and other products that Adobe are heavily working on at the moment.
The majority of concern is coming from the users of Flash and the developers who are, well disgruntled that they can't use their flash applications on the Apple iPhone, IPad, etc. devices.
Does that mean Adobe should not care, they should but I think they have themselves to blame for this. Adobe have not been proactive in releasing a 64bit version of Flash for over 6 years, and even with a new version of it in the works it still won't be providing 64bit support.
That might not mean a lot to a lot of people, but lets take a look at their other product ColdFusion for a moment. It to was only ever released as a full 64bit as an Enterprise version in there ColdFusion 8 release, and yet if you had ever had to opportunity to work with the .Net side of ColdFusion that is supported in ColdFusion. You had extreme difficulties connecting or even running any 64bit 3rd party libraries with the product.
Adobe is about to release another new product ColdFusion builder, and update to Flex 3 which has been renamed to Flash 4 Builder and Flash Catalyst. None of these products have any hint of supporting full 64bit support, sure they will run in a 64bit environment and 64 bit Eclipse as a plugin, but they are running in 32bit mode.
Adobe have single handed, forced users to use 32bit browsers on the Windows platform, because Adobe refuse to work on a 64bit version. Their focus in on integrating this software application in with all the other products first and foremost, they aren't even interested in releasing a 64bit product at this stage on any of their products.
So with that in mind lets go back to Apple, Apple seem to be focused on moving forward and forward they are moving. If they are aware of a company that is not interested, and has shown no interest in developing for current market processors. What hope does Apple have in allowing this technology into their backyard?
Apple have made it very clear, that on the Mac they have had to make patches to the OS to accommodate the Flash technology in that platform. By closing the iPhone and iPad and other devices down to proprietary, or closed technology gives Apple the upper hand in making sure that the product is a stable product.
Apple will not be forced to write hacks into the OS that runs these devices, because a company like Adobe can't be bothered to sit back and release software that is compliant and heavily tested before they even think of releasing it.
If the future of Flash relies heavily on getting that product into Apple devices, Adobe should have looked at releasing a 64bit version a very long time ago and not rely on someone like Apple to patch/hack their OS to be kind to the users who wish to use the Flash plugin.
And with the future of Flash heavily reliant on the new products like Flash Builder 4, and Catalyst building 32bit applications in a 64bit world is not what I would call good business sense by Adobe.
So Adobe is now in a position where they will be playing catch up, and like Apple I would not be playing to kind to a Software company that is developing Applications that run on older style technology, how is that being a part of the Future?
After being a part of the pre-release programs on some of Adobe's products, I can safely say that the product managers/Marketing have no clue on what is needed. Sure we all know we need to make money, but to continue to release beta software that is fully broken in parts for the testers to test and play with, then leave very little room in the release candidate process to fully capture and test all possible bugs, Adobe fail on this from what I have experienced.
Even an Email from the product Manager of ColdFusion confirmed that to me, I won't go into the details of what it said. But lets say I was disgruntled with this person, because the attitude was that I as a single developer had ample opportunity to find the serious bugs in the application. However the problem was that these people looking after the cycle of the product didn't allow enough time for us developers/testers to write with the confidence there was no problems.
Apple would be very well aware of this problem with Adobe, and with articles that I have read on the Adobe v Apple debate on Flash on the iPhone, iPad its no wonder that Apple are locking Flash out of their products.
Which is a shame as the Flash product would have opened up so many more doors.
For further reading on the debate.
http://daringfireball.net/2010/01/apple_adobe_flash
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