Apple, lately, has engaged in a pretty nasty war of words against the Adobe. Specifically, over Flash, which is the coding that basically every Internet video site uses to play videos. Apple argues that Flash is a closed-wall garden, because Flash is a proprietary software format. That’s why Apple’s devices don’t support Flash and why Apple is throwing its backing behind HTML5 as the future of a Flashless Internet and getting incredibly nasty in the process. Adobe is responding with love, announcing proudly that “We [heart] Apple,” competition, the Internet, and even HTML5, adding that, “What we don’t love is anybody taking away your freedom to choose what you create, how you create it, and what you experience on the Web.”
The idea that Apple can criticize anyone for having a closed-wall garden is laughable, and it shows what a hypocrite Steve Jobs is. Apple is the DEFINITION of a closed-wall ecosystem. If you want to use your iPod, you initially had to have iTunes to manage it. If you want to buy music via iTunes, you had to upload it on an iPod and not a better, cheaper competitor. If you want to use OSX, you STILL have to buy an Apple computer (which are inferior machines at inflated prices). The iPad is a gimped device with no Flash support that you have to jailbreak to use to its full potential! The only reason any of this stuff changed is because people complained for months, or years, and got Apple to change their ways reluctantly.
Apple doesn’t care about open source, about free Internet, or about anything other than driving users to Apple and locking them in the Apple shed. If they can soak you for the Apple tax in the process, so much the better. Apple wants HTML5 only because they want to harm Adobe’s business and force people to use that obnoxious QuickTime junkware. It’s that simple.
Tags: Adobe, Apple, Flash, HTML5, feuds, software, online video, format wars, next generation software, public relations