May 4, 2010, 10:17 am
Jobs Takes Flash to the Mat
By Henry Woodbury
Get your ringside seats for the Apple vs. Adobe fight, right here.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs tries the headscissors takedown:
Besides the fact that Flash is closed and proprietary, has major technical drawbacks, and doesn’t support touch based devices, there is an even more important reason we do not allow Flash on iPhones, iPods and iPads… We know from painful experience that letting a third party layer of software come between the platform and the developer ultimately results in sub-standard apps and hinders the enhancement and progress of the platform.
Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen bounces back with a half nelson leg sweep (video here):
The technology problems that Mr. Jobs mentions in his essay are “really a smokescreen,” Mr. Narayen says. He says more than 100 applications that used Adobe’s software were accepted in the App Store. “When you resort to licensing language” to restrict this sort of development, he says, it has “nothing to do with technology.”
By the way, here’s Rey Mysterio performing the headscissors move:
