The iPad Flash battle really doesn’t look like it’s going to end anytime soon. Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen took to the Fox Business channel to declare that Apple’s decision to deny iPad Flash support “hurts customers”. It doesn’t look like Apple or Adobe are about to give peace a chance any time soon.

With the UK iPad delay, we’ve got even longer to watch Apple and Adobe battle it out over iPad Flash support in America. Interviewed on Fox Business, Shantanu says Apple’s decision to keep Flash off the iPad “isn’t really a technology decision as much as it is a business decision”.

He continued: “[Apple] has chosen to keep their system proprietary and closed which is why they’re not supporting Flash and I think that hurts customers.” He said stopping iPad Flash support would damage Apple as “companies like Google, RIM and Palm are going to releasing version of Flash on smartphones and tablets in the second half of the year.”

The battle between Apple and Adobe over iPad Flash support is creating a wider split between organisations willing to offer iPad specific sites (including video provider Brightcove and Flickr) and firms sticking with Flash. The HP Slate will feature Flash support while Google Chrome OS tablets will have Flash built-in.

The Adobe/Apple clash over Flash has been running for some time but really kicked off in earnest in February this year when allegedly Steve Jobs slammed Google and Adobe at an Apple event. Jobs made a big point at the iPhone OS 4.0 event that iAds use HTML5 not Flash.

Out now | £free | Adobe (via Fox Business)

  • Tessie

    NEED flash on my IPAD!!!

  • dave

    So does putting a bunch of crappy flash on your webpage.

  • duke

    dave says:
    April 15, 2010 at 12:56 am

    So does putting a bunch of crappy flash on your webpage.

    Any application can be crap… I am sure javascript/html5 and objective c apps can be crap as well…

    You just have your nose so far up Steve Jobs Rear that when some one tells you less is more and that he who is your master (Steve Jobs) knows what is better for you than you do…

    I am so sick of you mac fan boys…

  • dave

    Uh…I’m an Android developer! Nice knee-jerk reaction, though.

    Flash still sucks.

  • Lee

    I’m an IT trainer by profession, and most, if not all, of the current generation of e-learning courseware creation tools output in flash/HTML.

    Flash as a rich media tool has worked great for me so far. To have a device, even a company, in this day and age not even able to cater for such a widespread internet standard is frustrating to say the least.

    In my opinion it’s nothing but arrogance on the part of Apple. I can see absolutely no sound business decision to alienate everyone who uses Flash on a daily basis. People like me, the countless YouTube users, the 25 million Zynga-addicted casual gamers…like it or not, Flash is an integral part of the internet “experience” of today.

Hot chat, right here!


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