UFC 116 – Apple vs Adobe

When I read this article in the April 27th edition of the Wall St Journal, where Apple CEO Steve Jobs blasts Adobe Flash in a 1,600 essay published on Apple’s website, the first thing that came to mid was….Does Steve Jobs really have a case here against Adobe?  Or is it because Adobe poses a real threat to Apple’s world domination plans?

Steve Jobs makes 6 points, which I’ll summarize below:

• First, there’s “Open”.
  • Jobs makes the case that Adobe’s Flash is a closed platform.  Jobs also defends his Apple’s own closed platform by saying that they use open standards such as HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript.
• Second, there’s the “full web”.
  • Jobs responds to Adobe’s claims that the ban on Flash limits users of Apple’s products from viewing content on the web.  Jobs says that most of the video on the web is also available in a more modern format, H.264, which can be viewed well on an iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch.
• Third, there’s reliability, security and performance.
  • Jobs cites 2009 reports from Symantec about Flash‘s security, or lack of.  He also says that Flash is the number one reason why Mac’s crash.  (I own three new MacBook Pro laptops and I’ve never had them crash)
• Fourth, there’s battery life.
  • Jobs claims that viewing videos decoded in software (Flash) versus hardware (H.264) reduces battery life.  10 hours vs 5 hours.
• Fifth, there’s Touch.
  • Jobs makes the point that websites written in Flash were to be viewed by users who have mice.  Functions like rollovers are not possible in a touch environment.
• Sixth, the most important reason.
  • Jobs says that Adobe also wants developers to adopt Flash to create apps that run on Apple’s mobile devices and other platforms.  He does not want a third party software company to come between developers and his products.

According to the Wall St Journal, who interviewed Adobe’s CEO Shantanu Narayen, Narayen’s response to the Sixth Point is “It doesn’t benefit Apple and that’s why you see this reaction,”.  What that means is that Jobs doesn’t like Adobe’s approach to making Flash multi-platform.  That means that you can develop an app using Flash that would work on both an iPhone and a Droid.  That’s a threat to Apple’s domination in the mobile market.

Ok, so what does all of that mean to us, the users?  Well, to me it means that this pissing match between the two companies will lead to less choices in apps.  Small developers won’t develop Flash apps cross platform because of the time and resources involved.  I personally hate situations like this because ultimately it’s the consumer who loses the battle.

If I was Dana White, Don King, or Bob Arum, I would try to book these two CEOs to be the main event at one of my fights.  I’d love to see Steve Jobs in the Octagon at UFC 116, wouldn’t you?