A Slap for Apple

NY Post

 

Adobe's Flash video software has become a flashpoint in negotiations between Apple CEO Steve Jobs and Big Media.

On a day when Apple execs probably cheered the fact the company had surpassed Microsoft as the world's most valuable tech company, Jobs was grappling with resistance from Tinseltown over Apple's ongoing fight with Adobe.

Sources said several large media companies, including Time Warner and NBC Universal, told Apple they won't retool their extensive video libraries to accommodate the iPad, arguing that such a reformatting would be expensive and not worth it because Flash dominates the Web.

Though the iPad has been a huge hit, media companies are feeling emboldened in their rebuffing of Apple by the launch of rival touch-screen tablet devices, such as the ones coming from Dell Computer and Hewlett-Packard, sources said.

In addition, one media executive pointed out that Apple's ability to dictate terms to the media giants will be weakened further by Google TV, a software product that enables viewers to watch online video on their big-screen TVs.

Jobs banned Flash software from running on Apple devices, arguing that the world's most popular video software is unfit for his devices. Instead, he favors video software written in Web software language called HTML5.

Said an Apple spokeswoman, "We believe in open standards like HTML5."

The media companies' refusal to cave in to Jobs marks another setback at a time when Apple has had its share of both good and bad news.

In the plus column, Apple's $221.1 billion market cap yesterday topped Microsoft's $219.2 billion, making it the most valuable tech company. However, Apple is facing scrutiny from the Justice Department over tactics it uses in pricing songs sold on iTunes.

Apple shares closed down $1.17 to $244.05. Microsoft shares fell $1.06 to $25.01.

In the Apple vs. Adobe fight, Big Media's decision not to acquiesce to Apple's demands will be a boon to Adobe, which has gotten beaten up by Jobs' withering criticism of Flash.

Time Warner, in particular, is against the walled-garden, subscription-only model promoted by Apple in part because Time Warner is promoting its "TV Everywhere" initiative, which aims to make content platform agnostic so long as users can prove they are pay-TV customers.

Not surprisingly, Disney, which counts Jobs as its largest shareholder, has created an iPad app that lets users watch ABC shows for free.

CBS, using an iPad-enabled Web browser, is also working with Apple, but to a limited extent, offering only a handful of shows.

Both Fox News (which, like The Post, is owned by News Corp.) and CNN offer free video clips using HTML5 on the iPad.

Apple's Behavior a Throwback to 1984, Adobe CTO Says
PC World

Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch

Apple's refusal to allow Flash on the iPhone hurts innovation and is "like 1984 in a lot of ways," Adobe Systems' CTO said on Wednesday, implying that Apple has become the "Big Brother" it rebelled against in its iconic TV ad from that year.

"The story is bigger than HTML versus Flash. It's about freedom of choice on the Web," CTO Kevin Lynch said at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco Wednesday, when he was asked to comment on "the elephant in the room" during an on-stage interview

"I think it's like 1984 in a lot of ways," Lynch said later, apparently referring to Apple's famous Macintosh computer ad, in which an athlete hurls a sledgehammer through a giant screen in front of an auditorium of gray worker drones. The face on the screen was seen to represent the dominant power in computing at the time.

Lynch also compared Apple's behavior to that of the railroad companies in the 19th century, when progress was held back because different companies used different gauges of railroad track.

"That wasn't good for the industry, the U.S. economy or competition, and that's what's attempting to be done right now, and that's totally counter to the Web," Lynch said. "The equivalent of the gauge of the railroads today is rewriting native code for applications on a particular operating system, and that's expensive and inefficient," he said.

It was the latest volley in a public dispute over Apple's refusal to let applications that use Adobe's Flash technology run on Apple's iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. CEO Steve Jobs has said it is because Flash will drain the battery life and slow the performance of its devices, and because it is not an open standard.

Lynch has already responded to those arguments and suggested that Adobe has given up on Apple, preferring to develop Flash for rival mobile platforms such as Google Android, the BlackBerry and Palm (soon to be part of Hewlett-Packard).

Meanwhile, U.S. regulators are reportedly considering an antitrust probe of Apple over the way it requires developers to use its own tools to build iPhone applications. Lynch seemed to allude to those reports Wednesday.

"I don't think it's the role of the company to exercise judgment on what people should use, that's the role of society and the law," he said.

"The technology issue Apple has with us is not that [Flash] doesn't work, it's that it does work," Lynch said. "You can make a [Flash] application that works fine across OSes, and they don't like that."

There's been much discussion at the Web 2.0 conference about how well Flash will compete with HTML 5, an upcoming version of the Web's core markup language that will support such capabilities as video and animation, and which Jobs has proposed as an alternative to Flash.

Lynch made it clear Wednesday that Adobe won't keep all its eggs in one basket. HTML 5 is "a great step forward" and Adobe will try to build "the best tools in the world" for HTML 5 development, he said. But he also thinks that Flash will stay one step ahead.

"There's lots of room for Flash to keep innovating, filling in holes at a more rapid pace than what HTML has been moving at," Lynch said.

Adobe is displaying a prototype tablet device developed by Nvidia and running Flash in Adobe's booth on the show floor, Lynch said. Many devices like this will go on sale in the second half of the year, he said.

"All of the innovation that's happening with a variety of companies is going to dwarf what's happening with any one company," Lynch said.

What's Behind Apple's Clash with Flash?

NPR

 

People who surf the Web with any of Apple's mobile devices including the iPad or the iPhone sometimes encounter large chunks of empty space where a video or an interactive game should appear.

That's because Apple's mobile products don't support Adobe Systems' Flash, the technology that powers those parts of the Web.

Apple chief Steve Jobs isn't a fan of Flash — and he released a letter Thursday explaining exactly why. He's even got some of the Internet's most popular destinations — The New York Times, Facebook, even NPR — working to strip Flash away from websites on the iPad.

So why doesn't Jobs like Flash?

Jobs says Adobe — not Apple — has a closed system because its products are 100 percent proprietary and this conflicts with Apple's desire to use open standards for the Web.

"It's purely technical. It's not a very good program for mobile devices," Leander Kahney, author of the biography Inside Steve's Brain, tells host Guy Raz. "It's a CPU hog and it drains battery life very quickly, so he doesn't want it on it."

Flash is the dominant multimedia technology in use right now.

"It has amazing penetration. Three-quarters of all the video on the Net is encoded in flash," says Kahney, who is also editor of cultofmac.com. "Almost all of the games, all the casual games — especially the really popular games like FarmVille on Facebook — they're all encoded in Flash. Almost all of the technology world is embedded in Flash."

As recently as six months ago some technology experts thought Flash was would dominate Web multimedia. Now some are saying the technology is doomed.

This isn't the first time Apple has taken aim at a mainstream technology. In the late 1990s, the floppy drive disappeared after Apple introduced the first iMac with its CD drive. And iTunes and the iPod have slashed sales of CDs.

There's also been some controversy over the lack of Blu-ray drives on Apple computers. But Kahney says Apple's reasoning has been that consumers can already get a lot of high-definition content by streaming over the Internet.

Although Jobs is an intensely private person, Kahney thinks his intentions are good: "I think he is genuinely interested in crafting technology that is easy to use for consumers, and Flash wrecks that experience or has the potential to wreck that experience. And so, it's gone. He's just extremely ruthless about that."

Microsoft Echoes Apple's Views on Adobe Flash

The Washington Post

 

 

Microsoft Corp joined archrival Apple Inc in criticizing Adobe Systems Inc's widely used Flash multimedia software, creating a rare bond among the two computing giants. 

 Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs sharply criticized Flash, which is used to produce videos and games for many Internet sites on Thursday. Apple has banned Flash from its iPhone and iPad. 

 A Microsoft executive pitched in later that day, saying while the ubiquity of Flash makes it easy for consumers to access video on the web, the standard has flaws. 

 "Flash does have some issues, particularly around reliability, security and performance," said Dean Hachamovitch, general manager for the Internet Explorer browser. 

 He said that Microsoft is backing the same protocols for delivering multimedia content over the Web that Apple is promoting, a group of standards known as HTML5. 

 But Microsoft was more conciliatory toward Adobe than Apple, saying it works closely with Flash engineers to help fix bugs that it finds in the product. 

 Steve Jobs, by comparison, said in his open letter that it is time for the industry to move beyond Flash. 

 "Flash is a successful business for Adobe, and we can understand why they want to push it beyond PCs," he said. "But the mobile era is about low power devices, touch interfaces and open web standards -- all areas where Flash falls short." 

 Meanwhile Adobe dismissed the claims, saying that Apple was simply trying to promote its own products. 

 "Apple's moves to block Flash and other technologies are designed to protect a business model that locks developers and consumers into a single, proprietary stack," Adobe spokeswoman Holly Campbell said. 

 Some 75 percent of all video on the web are Flash-based. Popular Flash-based sites such as Hulu can't run on the iPhone or iPad, according to Adobe. But sites like YouTube have worked around this by specially designing non-Flash apps for those devices. 

Jobs Attacks Flash as Unfit for iPhone

The Wall Street Journal

Steve Jobs escalates fight with Adobe

Apple Inc. Chief Executive Steve Jobs escalated his fight with Adobe Systems Inc. over the software known as Flash, a battle that could shape the evolution of video and gaming on mobile devices.

Mr. Jobs—after months of criticism from Adobe and software developers for his company's decision to ban Flash from iPhones, iPods and iPads— Thursday took the unusual step of posting a lengthy essay on Apple's Web site criticizing Adobe's software as a flawed throwback to a time before smartphones caught the fancy of consumers.

"Flash was created during the PC era—for PCs and mice," Mr. Jobs wrote in an essay totaling more than 1,600 words. "The mobile era is about low power devices, touch interfaces and open Web standards—all areas where Flash falls short."

Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen fired back in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, disputing Mr. Jobs's assertions about shortcomings in Flash. That is a "smoke screen," he argued, for Apple's plan to keep its own lock over software development for its mobile devices. "It's clear that it has nothing to do with technology," he said.

The tough rhetoric underscores the huge stakes in setting key technical standards for the mobile Internet, a process that could affect the fortunes of device makers, programmers, media companies and advertisers.

Apple, a PC pioneer whose influence in that market waned, has won new power in the mobile world because of the success of the iPhone and the App Store created to supply software for it.



Analysts and industry executives don't expect Mr. Jobs to readily share that power with other standard-setters such as Adobe. "They are trying to control their ecosystem," said Jeffrey Hammond, an analyst at Forrester Research, of Apple. "It's all about control."

Mr. Jobs, through a spokeswoman, declined a request for an interview to elaborate on his essay and the reason for releasing it now.

Media companies and advertisers have privately expressed frustration about Apple's stance toward Flash because their online video and other Web content incorporates Flash. Adobe, meanwhile, has said it will try to work closely with Google Inc. to popularize Flash on phones using Google's Android system.

Flash is the most popular video format on the Web, and is also used for animation and advertising. It has been slower to take hold in cellphones, but Adobe has recently introduced new versions aimed at mobile devices.

Instead of Flash, Apple is supporting Web sites that use an emerging standard called HTML 5, which is being developed by a consortium that it is a part of alongside Google. But some Web developers say HTML 5 isn't yet ready to be used for anything besides trials.

Apple's anti-Flash policy is not new, but attained greater prominence after the iPad was first publicly demonstrated in January. With a small device like the iPhone, people expected a truncated version of the Web, but with the iPad, people had expected to be able to watch video on the device's big Web browser, said Ben Bajarin, an analyst at Creative Strategies, a research and consulting firm.

Another factor is a new version of Adobe's Creative Suite software, which includes tools for using Flash to build iPhone apps. Just before Adobe formally unveiled the software, Apple changed the terms of use for its App Store to forbid apps written with the new software.

Dave Wolf, vice president of strategy at Cynergy Systems Inc., a Washington, D.C., design firm, calls Apple's no-Flash policy "a pain." Mr. Wolf had planned to build apps for clients using the new Adobe software.

Developers are "caught in the middle," agreed David Clarke, founder of BGT Partners, a Web design firm in Miami.

The essay is a rare but not unprecedented move for Mr. Jobs. Three years ago he published a statement urging the music industry to let Apple sell music without anticopying software.

The debate has divided the media and technology industries. Adobe supporters created a Facebook page called "I'm with Adobe" that has nearly 11,000 members while others have sided with Apple.

Mr. Hammond of Forrester said many points raised by Mr. Jobs are just wrong. But other analysts disagreed. "I think Jobs summarized all the frustrations he's had," said Rick Doherty, an analyst with consulting firm Envisioneering Group. "I'd be really surprised if Adobe can challenge his arguments because they're predominantly true."

Mr. Jobs argues in his letter that Flash hasn't worked well on cellphones, shortens their battery life, adds security problems and doesn't support touch interfaces. He said Adobe's effort to use Flash to create apps for Apple's devices could cause problems if Adobe were slow to add support for Apple enhancements.

Adobe's Mr. Narayen said developers and consumers benefit from Adobe's multi-platform approach, which could ultimately make apps for iPhones work on other devices. "It doesn't benefit Apple and that's why you see this reaction," he said.

Apple’s Steve Jobs: Google’s ‘Don’t Be Evil’ Mantra is ‘Bullshit,’ Adobe Is Lazy
Wired

After a big public announcement of the sort Apple had this week for the iPad CEO Steve Jobs often takes time in the day or two afterwards to have a Town Hall at One Infinite Loop, making himself available for questions from employees bold enough to stand up and take one right between the eyes.

This time, the big topics included Google and Adobe — no surprises there. Google recently unveiled its own Android-powered handset, the Nexus One, whose release Jan. 5 prompted Jobs to perhaps over-react by announcing on the same day that the iTunes store had served up three billion apps and that “… we see no signs of the competition catching up any time soon.” Apple’s billionth iPhone app download was greeted with great fanfare, but the two billionth not so much, so it felt a tad like Jobs was feeling some heat.

And the absence of Adobe Flash support on the iPhone for three years and counting, and now on the iPad, is either celebrated by users as a poke in the eye of one of the web’s most dextrous tools, or the most over-rated and overused crutch for decent design.

Jobs, characteristically, did not mince words as he spoke to the assembled, according to a person who was there who could not be named because this person is not authorized by Apple to speak with the press.

On Google: We did not enter the search business, Jobs said. They entered the phone business. Make no mistake they want to kill the iPhone. We won’t let them, he says. Someone else asks something on a different topic, but there’s no getting Jobs off this rant. I want to go back to that other question first and say one more thing, he says. This don’t be evil mantra: “It’s bullshit.” Audience roars.

About Adobe: They are lazy, Jobs says. They have all this potential to do interesting things but they just refuse to do it. They don’t do anything with the approaches that Apple is taking, like Carbon. Apple does not support Flash because it is so buggy, he says. Whenever a Mac crashes more often than not it’s because of Flash. No one will be using Flash, he says. The world is moving to HTML5.

The world, of course, includes Google, which last week in a somewhat more modest development bypassed Apple’s iPhone app blockade by unveiling an html5 version of Google Voice, which takes full advantage of mobile Safari on the iPhone. Wired.com found it to be an impressive variation of the app Apple has neither approved nor officially rejected.

And it is, of course, in keeping with Google’s stated view (Android app marketplace notwithstanding) that the future is really in web-based applications and not in mobile apps at all. Web-based applications of the sort html5 makes much more viable.

So, great work rallying the troops, Steve — but be careful what you wish for.

In a post on macrumors.com Arnold Kim adds some more details from the Town Hall, including tough talk from Jobs about a blistering pace of iPhone updates, the LaLa acquisition, the next iPhone and (ahem) another candid assessment, of Blu-Ray.)

Another member of the audience, who also requires anonymity because this person is also not authorized to speak to the media, disputes the “bullshit” quote and says Jobs actually said: “Don’t be evil is a load of crap,” as first reported by Daring Fireball. This source also asserts that Jobs had nice things to say about how Adobe, or at least how the company used to be, as John Gruber’s “little birdie” also told him first.)

Microsoft Targets Adobe in Web-Design Software

As posted by: Wall Street Journal

Adobe Systems Inc. is facing increasing pressure from Microsoft Corp., which is using its deep pockets to challenge Adobe's dominance of Web design software.

Adobe's Flash software, which adds video and animation to Web sites, is at the heart of many popular Internet destinations. Retailers, media outlets and entertainment sites rely on Flash to make their sites interactive and to serve up advertisements.

But Microsoft has recently launched a new version of its competing Silverlight technology and has been aggressively courting the operators of popular Web sites and advertising agencies that are Adobe's core customers.

Netflix Inc. recently said it would use Silverlight to stream movies over the Internet. When CBS Corp.'s college sports group decided to build its Web site using Silverlight earlier this year, Microsoft chipped in free development and support that "reduced our costs tremendously," said Tom Buffolano, the CBS business unit's former chief. A CBS spokesman declined to comment.

Winning the war with Microsoft "is clearly the most important priority," said Adobe Chief Executive Shantanu Narayen.

The economic downturn is adding to Adobe's challenges. The company Tuesday said its net income rose 11% for the quarter ended Nov. 28, but revenue growth stalled. Sales were $915.3 million, little changed from a year ago and below Adobe's original targets. Adobe is forecasting revenue for the current quarter will decline about 5% to 10%. Earlier this month, Adobe said it would cut 600 jobs, or 8% of its work force.

Microsoft sees opportunity in the economic pressures on Adobe. "I'm sure that we will gain ground technologically," said Bob Muglia, senior vice president of the Microsoft unit responsible for Silverlight.

Adobe's Flash player is installed on about 98% of Internet-connected PCs, and Silverlight is only installed on about 25%, according to Adobe and Microsoft. Adobe executives said this gives the smaller company about a two-year head start. But Microsoft is "willing to invest" in order to win certain "trophy sites," said Mr. Muglia.

Earlier this year, for instance, General Electric Co.'s NBC Universal chose Silverlight over Flash to deliver video from Beijing Olympics over the Web. Microsoft was an official sponsor of the Democratic National Convention, which streamed video using Silverlight.

Spokeswomen from Microsoft and Adobe declined to comment on the terms of these deals, as did representatives from the Web sites.

"There's no doubt that Adobe is ahead of Microsoft in terms of features," said Al Hilwa, an analyst at research company IDC. "But winners aren't always picked on merit. Companies strike deals, woo customers, and try to build an ecosystem. Microsoft is very good at that."

Adobe isn't without wins: In November, MLB.com LLC, the Web site for Major League Baseball, switched to Flash from Silverlight for online video of games.

Last year, Web design firm Cynergy Systems Inc. began using Microsoft tools for the first time to build Internet sites. While Cynergy still uses Adobe technology for 80% of the sites it builds, it uses Silverlight for the other 20% and that work is growing more quickly, said Dave Wolf, Cynergy's vice president of sales and marketing.

While millions of software programmers use Microsoft's tools, the company has little traction among Web designers. Adobe said it is counting in part on loyalty from graphic designers to hold Microsoft at bay.

"It's difficult to find designers who know Silverlight," said Scott Stanfield, chief executive of Vertigo Software Inc., which specializes in building sites with Silverlight. "I can't imagine a more hostile community [to Microsoft] than designers," he said, noting his firm's designers still use software from Adobe to sketch plans for sites before building them with Silverlight.

Adobe is also wooing computer programmers, the majority of whom use Microsoft's tools. Navtrak Inc. built the fleet-management software it sells to trucking companies using Adobe's technology after sending some of its programmers to an Adobe-sponsored training session last year, said Todd Hodges, a Navtrak product manager.

In May, Adobe launched the Open Screen Project, a group of 19 companies -- including Nokia Corp., Qualcomm Inc., and Verizon Communications Inc.'s wireless unit -- to attract developers. The project promises developers that they can build software once -- using Adobe's technology -- and have it run on PCs, mobile phones and televisions.

Adobe Systems to Unveil Design Software for Evolving Web Sites

Adobe Systems Inc. plans to unveil the latest version of its flagship Web-publishing software Tuesday.

The new software, called Creative Suite 4, is intended to make it easier to design Web sites that combine different types of media, such as animation and live video. These features are becoming increasingly important as Web sites evolve from the text-filled pages and static images that dominated the Internet's early days.

Adobe Systems is set to unveil a new version of its flagship Web-publishing software.

"It used to be that video on the Web was enough to make you say 'Wow,' " says Johnny Loiacono, senior vice president of the Adobe business unit responsible for the software. "But now it takes richer and richer experiences to keep our attention."

Creative Suite 4 is made up of 13 individual software products, including the San Jose, Calif., company's Photoshop for photo editing, Dreamweaver for Web-site design, and InDesign for desktop publishing. The new software runs 20% to 50% faster than its predecessor, says Mr. Loiacono. The different products are also more integrated with one another so a designer can now work with a video made with Adobe's Flash technology while using InDesign, a task that previously required separate software.

The new software will cost $1,699 to $2,499.

Businesses are increasingly buying or developing visually compelling software that employees or customers can access over the Web, says Jeffrey Hammond, an analyst at Forrester Research. As the line between Web design and software development blurs, Adobe faces increased competition from technology giants like Microsoft Corp., whose Silverlight video software competes with Flash.

Adobe last week reported profit of $191.6 million on revenue of $887.3 million for its third quarter ended Aug. 29. The creative solutions group, which includes Creative Suite, accounted for $493.6 million, or 56% of the quarterly revenue.

By: Ben Worthen
Wall Street Journal; September 23, 2008