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Steve Jobs wants to kill Adobe Flash

Apple hopes that the iPad will hope to drive HTML5 adoption
Adobe is quite worried about the rise of HTML5

Flash, for better or worse, is a big part of the web experience in the desktop and notebook market. Adobe Flash has an estimated 98 percent penetration in the PC market and websites use Flash for everything from ads to video to games. Some websites, like Nike.com, are built almost entirely around Flash.

Adobe is fighting to extend its reach into the mobile market thanks to Flash Mobile 10.1. Flash Mobile 10.1 will be made available for all major mobile platforms except for Apple's iPhone OS. Apple has been notoriously apprehensive of Flash and Steve Jobs has continually stated that Flash is a CPU hog and crashed Mac computers.

With mobile devices like smartphones exploding in sales and becoming an increasingly important part of our lives, Adobe is sensitive to anything that could possibly threaten its position in this marketplace. Today, we're beginning to learn just how afraid Adobe is of Apple's insistence that websites push Flash to the side and instead embrace HTML5.

According to BusinessWeek, an SEC filing by Adobe today explains that Apple's clout and the prevalence of its popular devices like the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad directly threaten its business.

“To the extent new releases of operating systems or other third-party products, platforms or devices, such as the Apple iPhone or iPad, make it more difficult for our products to perform, and our customers are persuaded to use alternative technologies, our business could be harmed,” said Adobe in the filing.

Adobe goes on to add, “ Additionally, HTML5 specifies scripting application programming interfaces which if broadly implemented in browsers could compete with Adobe Flash. Companies, such as Google, Sun, Apple and Microsoft, may introduce competing software offerings for free or open source vendors may introduce competitive products.”

Since Apple refuses to support Adobe Flash on its iPhone OS-based devices, many websites have decided to make HTML5 versions of their sites that are viewable to users of iPhones and iPads. Brightcove has already released HTML5 tools which are used on sites like the New York Times, and TIME. YouTube is already previewing an HTML5 version of its website that works properly on Flash-less devices like the iPad.

In addition, Apple even has the advertising market covered -- Flash is a staple of online advertising -- with iAd. Steve Jobs demonstrated iAd for the iPhone OS 4.0 platform yesterday -- his demo included ads complete with video, games, and other interactive content. Jobs also made a point to mention that iAd was completely done in HTML5 (Jobs' comment is at the 50:37 mark).

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Hello Hello
By threepac3 on 4/9/2010 1:01:43 PM , Rating: 4
Competition is a wonderful thing.




RE: Hello Hello
By amanojaku on 4/9/2010 1:08:59 PM , Rating: 5
This isn't competition; if there was competition iProducts would support Flash and end users would decided to use Flash or HTML 5 pages. The fact is Apple is exploiting its user base of iPod, iPhone and soon iPad owners to indirectly kill Flash.


RE: Hello Hello
By reader1 on 4/9/10, Rating: -1
RE: Hello Hello
By MrBlastman on 4/9/2010 1:36:51 PM , Rating: 5
So, we can kill reader1 by reading?

It isn't working... :(


RE: Hello Hello
By Anoxanmore on 4/9/2010 2:39:57 PM , Rating: 3
You sir win my first ever "Best Reply to Reader1 Award"
Is there anyone you'd like to thank?

Hands over trophy


RE: Hello Hello
By vol7ron on 4/11/2010 7:35:11 PM , Rating: 2
If Flash were smart, they'd develop code (php or javascript), for site administrators, that would sniff if a browser were able to play Flash and if not, return a blank webpage, or a page with a message.

The whole purpose would be to have enraged Apple customers demand Flash in order to get the other content. Rather than having Apple users just accept the fact that they can't view Flash, give them a reason to get pissed off about it.

Many sites have Flash (aside from gaming and video sites) to get money from the Flash advertisements. Therefore those sites would not be getting paid if viewers can't load the ads. For those users, those sites should prohibit the users from viewing the rest of the content to give Apple customers a reason to get mad.

A big example was the NY Times (or whatever news site Jobs used as an example for the iPad, where the Flash wasn't visible). It'd be easy to make a script that wouldn't post the news article unless the browser supported Flash.


RE: Hello Hello
By namechamps on 4/12/2010 8:57:16 AM , Rating: 3
Such code has existed for a decade (or longer).
The question is WHY would I (or any website) use that?

The goal of my companies website is to promote my company and advance our goals not adobe's.

Hence we do everything possible to accommodate users to maximize the return on our very expensive resource. Now if adobe wants to pay us a massive amount of money and the bean counters determine that the cash from adobe is greater than the potential lost revenue from "non-compliant" users then sure.

However Adobe doesn't have deep enough pockets, not by a magnitude.


RE: Hello Hello
By bissimo on 4/9/2010 4:58:22 PM , Rating: 2
SIX!!


RE: Hello Hello
By Shadowself on 4/9/2010 6:12:12 PM , Rating: 2
No, you'd have to kill reader1 by NOT reading his posts, not replying to reader1 and posting only things independently of anything reader1 posts. That makes reader1's posts 100% irrelevant and unread. Eventually reader1 would stop posting (effectively killing him).


RE: Hello Hello
By SSrev on 4/9/2010 10:30:46 PM , Rating: 1
Memaw said sit down Sheldon...


RE: Hello Hello
By crystal clear on 4/10/10, Rating: -1
RE: Hello Hello
By Murloc on 4/11/2010 11:32:43 AM , Rating: 1
NO this site isn't a democracy.
We didn't democratically elect the moderators or stuff like that.

And..

Go learn the correct use of puntuaction!


RE: Hello Hello
By crystal clear on 4/10/10, Rating: -1
RE: Hello Hello
By Griswold on 4/10/2010 5:13:17 AM , Rating: 4
Doesnt change the fact that these two clown, like you, are asshats, regardless of apples products.


RE: Hello Hello
By crystal clear on 4/10/10, Rating: -1
RE: Hello Hello
By Black69ta on 4/11/2010 6:54:08 AM , Rating: 2
pirks and reader1 have a reputation that reaches far beyond the idiocy of comments made by them on the topic of Apples, I could count the number of intelligent, germane comments made by either one on one hand, even if I had lost all my finger in an accident. Now to be Crystal Clear, pirks and reader1 are not voted down and ridiculed based on a preference for which personal computer they laud. Also, while on the subject of idiots, put away the online thesaurus, using "big" words then cutting and pasting the definition after each word, does not make you appear intelligent, just pompous, and able to cut and paste. part of real intelligence is knowing your audience, and that means being smart enough to choose words that will be widely known amongst your readership.

Back to the topic, I fear that I have to side with Apple, Adobe is the only web based protocol that "needs" GPGPU. It is a CPU hog and until now has never had any competition. In this case Apple is no worse than Sony with its Blue-Ray technology, Flash is old and everyone would like to take over the market, at the same time consumers would love to have the same content in a way that is consistent across a growing number of platforms with various performance levels. HTML5 may turn out to be the messiah that everyone is looking for. Apple, is only guilty of taking a risk by being the first to shun Adobe and embrace HTML5, riding on one technology is typical Apple, but as you point out it works for Apple. So, maybe this will accelerate more widespread adoption of the new HTML standard.


RE: Hello Hello
By Tony Swash on 4/9/2010 1:37:39 PM , Rating: 1
First of all I can't see how Apple is exploiting its user base - the iPhone and iPad have always been explicitly sold as devices that don't do flash - Apple have been very up front about that. Everybody knows what they are buying into. Steve Jobs even deliberately showed a web page with a missing flash component at the iPad launch to ram the message home.

If you really want flash on your mobile device there are alternatives. Nobody is being forced to do anything.

Secondly Apple are not being indirect about anything - they are directly and deliberately using the success of the iPhone and iPad (and their resulting dominance in the mobile web segment) to kill mobile flash. If mobile flash dies then eventually flash on the desktop will die as the mobile market is going to increasingly be setting the standards.

Apple are very clear - the open standards of HTML5 is the future.

All of this is a good thing IMHO - flash is a clapped out, old and debilitating technology whose day has passed and which cannot function properly in the new world of the touch interface (see link below). The sooner it dies the better and I hope Apple hurry up and help it to its grave.

If you want to understand why flash doesn't fit into the new touch paradigm check out this excellent article by a flash developer.

http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2010/02/20/an-adobe-...


RE: Hello Hello
By B3an on 4/9/2010 3:25:27 PM , Rating: 5
Apple are not about open standards at all. Whenever they can make a proprietary device or standard to get more money they will, they are one of the worst, if not THE worst large consumer company for this.. They dont even have USB ports on the iPad, you will have to pay for an adapter.
The only reason they do not want Flash on the iPad is because it will drain the battery faster on the net which could make there product look bad. And people will just play the tens of thousands of free Flash games rather than get ripped off by the App Store. Yeah some touch devices wont work well with some flash games that have been designed with a mouse in mind, but thousands will still work.

Flash is a application platform and cannot be replaced by HTML5, ever. Any developer like myself that has worked with Flash would (or should!) know this. HTML5 is just a (unfinisned) mark up sepc with limited fuctionality. Flash and it's coding langauage are far more advanced. Action Script 3.0 which Flash uses is more like a C language. The software itself is also by far the best for web animation and vector based graphics, as it's animation and drawing tools are excellent, you can even use Flash solely for drawing or creating images, as it's tools are almost as good as Adobe Illustrator for this. In the latest Flash you even have bone tool, which makes creating and animating characters a lot easier. Again, HTML5 is just a markup spec, it has no animation features and tools for such things, you can write a HTML5 website in notepad.

HTML5 s fine for many sites, but theres some things it simply cannot do, and this is where Flash comes in, and why it's so popular in the first place. The only other alternative is Silverlight, which uses the .net language which as anyone should know is way more powerful than HTML will ever be.


RE: Hello Hello
By Guspaz on 4/9/2010 5:35:14 PM , Rating: 1
I hate to break it to you, but JavaScript and ActionScript 3.0 are both dialects of ECMAScript. In effect, they're more or less the same thing (with different APIs).

You should check out Google's port of Quake 2 to JavaScript/HTML5/WebGL: http://code.google.com/p/quake2-gwt-port/

Google Web Tools compiles Java to JavaScript, and Quake 2 had previously been ported to Java. It kind of shows off the potential for what can be achieved with HTML5, although it's obviously a quick and dirty hack to get it running, rather than a well-optimized port.


RE: Hello Hello
By B3an on 4/9/2010 9:42:25 PM , Rating: 3
Are you serious? That uses HTML5 audio tags for the audio. Thats it . HTML5 has no part in anything else. Not the game engine, the rendering, the controls, nothing. It could be run in HTML4 perfectly fine but without the audio tags. I thought i made my point pretty clear above that HTML5 is nowhere near powerful enough to do anything like that. Trying to make a game like that with pure HTML5 coding would be like trying to make a Windows OS using nothing but HTML5.

The techs they use:
WebGL, the Canvas API, HTML 5 <audio> elements, the local storage API, and WebSockets to demonstrate the possibilities of pure web applications in modern browsers such as Safari and Chrome.

Now thats a lot of things just to make a 3D game when Flash has the ability to do all that by itself, no other coding languages or plugins needed. All you need to make it as a developer would be Flash CS4, and all you need to view it as a web user would be Flash Player plugin.

3d Flash games & demos (i highly recommend checking these out, as some are just really fun to play)

Quake in Flash:
http://www.silvergames.com/game/quake-flash/

Green Planet
http://www.closier.nl/playground/greenplanet.html

Electric Oyster
http://www.electricoyster.com/electric3d/index.htm...

Loads of examples:
http://labs.powerupmedia.nl

and last but not least, Wolfenstein 3D in Flash:
http://www.glenrhodes.com/wolf/myRay.html


RE: Hello Hello
By B3an on 4/9/2010 10:09:38 PM , Rating: 2
Oh BTW a lot of the games above are older Flash games without GPU accleration - so they can be heavy on the CPU.
GPU acceleration was introduced for Flash 10.
Some games here use the GPU - http://away3d.com/category/demos


RE: Hello Hello
By rocky12345 on 4/9/2010 5:50:36 PM , Rating: 2
OMG Yet another brain washed Apple fanboy Victom. Apple plain & simly using its user base to promote a product. They openly state they are trying to kill off flash or adobe in general & you apple fanboys see nothing wrong with a company openly using their clout to destroy another company. To all fanatic Apple fanboys please line up in a nice line & let this big huge bus run ya down because that is the same thing Apple is trying to do to adobe & I guess it does not mind using it's customer in such a way to do it.


RE: Hello Hello
By JonB on 4/10/2010 2:25:27 PM , Rating: 2
I'm just glad Intel has never tried the same thing.


RE: Hello Hello
By JKflipflop98 on 4/11/2010 8:56:18 AM , Rating: 2
I think we should do something similar. Drop an i5, LarabeeII, a 160Gb flash drive, and some ram in a box the size of a mac-mini and tout is as an "open-source console" that also runs PC games.


RE: Hello Hello
By captainBOB on 4/9/2010 2:12:01 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
“ Additionally, HTML5 specifies scripting application programming interfaces which if broadly implemented in browsers could compete with Adobe Flash. Companies, such as Google, Sun, Apple and Microsoft, may introduce competing software offerings for free or open source vendors may introduce competitive products.”


Wait, HTML5 could result in other companies creating competing products? I would have never guessed.

I think a little competition is what adobe needs...


RE: Hello Hello
By rocky12345 on 4/9/2010 5:56:47 PM , Rating: 2
competition is a good thing noone will argue that because in the end the consumer wins. But what Apple is doing is not competing they are trying to bulldoze their way trough it all. Maybe the whole thing should be left up to the consumer to pick what they want to use. Maybe on a Apple device have a ballot screen like MS had to do. At least then it is the consumer that decides not one company.
by the way how is it giving adobe competion is they can not even get their software onto the Apple product like the iphone,ipad etc etc. Thats not competion thats called being forced out of the whole selection process.


RE: Hello Hello
By JKflipflop98 on 4/9/2010 8:32:34 PM , Rating: 1
I'm not sure how standing on stage and saying one standard is better than another is "bulldozing". Mr. Jobs clearly stated his issues with Flash. a)it's a cpu hog b)it crashes alot on macs. Now, wouldn't it be prudent of the fellows at Adobe to - oh I don't know - work on the code so it's not so CPU intensive and a little more stable? Screw that, let's just ask the government for help!

Is this what it's come to? Someone else comes up with a better product, and instead of innovate, we just need to write a letter to a government body?


RE: Hello Hello
By crystal clear on 4/10/2010 6:42:23 AM , Rating: 1
The fact is Apple is exploiting its user base of iPod, iPhone and soon iPad owners to indirectly kill Flash.

Why not ?

Its after all business not charity !

Its all about marketshare !

Its all about revenues & profits !

iProducts would support Flash and end users would decided to use Flash or HTML 5 pages.

Yes Adobe could approach the E.U. maybe there they could get a sympathetic hearing.

On the contrary the hard hit economically & cash starved EU would love this opportunity to FINE Apple a few cool millions.

Just like they did to microsoft & intel in the recent past.

The EU is looking for a bailout package !


RE: Hello Hello
By MrBlastman on 4/9/2010 1:20:21 PM , Rating: 2
Not if you're the guy Steve Jobs is pointing at. My bet is the guys head exploded shortly afterwards. If you look closely, you can see the deathly stare in Jobs' eyes. He's a scanner I tell you! Ask Michael Ironside if you don't believe me, he'll vouch for it.


RE: Hello Hello
By Mr Perfect on 4/9/2010 1:26:26 PM , Rating: 1
The second quote from Adobe is insane. All they're doing in that paragraph is complaining to the SEC about how competing products could hurt their sales. No kidding! Do they expect the SEC to hand them a monopoly?


RE: Hello Hello
By jthistle on 4/9/2010 4:29:38 PM , Rating: 3
Adobe is not complaining to the SEC. The filing mentioned in the article is a quarterly report which Adobe is required to file as a publicly traded company. What Adobe is doing is informing its shareholders that Apple's exclusive use of HTML5 can undermine Adobe's Flash dominance and have an impact on their earnings.


RE: Hello Hello
By Mr Perfect on 4/9/2010 4:36:42 PM , Rating: 2
Oh, right. Whoops.

I guess they're hoping for some public pressure on Apple then.


RE: Hello Hello
By Reclaimer77 on 4/11/2010 2:38:14 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
Competition is a wonderful thing.


Ummm if this was competition "i" devices would run Flash too and the user would choose. Sort of how Windows and Linux based PC's and devices work ??

Apple has never promoted competition. Look up the word in the dictionary, what this does is the exact OPPOSITE of competition.


RE: Hello Hello
By knowom on 4/12/2010 4:58:10 PM , Rating: 2
Agreed, but for Apple users their seeing no competition not that I care it's just one more reason not to like them out of many.

The one good thing to come from all of it though is Adobe might be forced to innovate and advance or fade away because of HTML5.

Adobe hasn't exactly earned itself any sympathy cards from flash users by ignoring 64 bit support for so long despite users continually requesting it.

Adobe might finally add 64 bit flash support by the time HTML5 has all ready begun to really take over as the dominate standard and by then it'll be too late.


What Adobe should do
By Abrahmm on 4/9/2010 2:21:44 PM , Rating: 5
In response to Apple not letting Adobe flash on the iWhatever, Adobe should discontinue making software like Photoshop and Illustrator for the Mac. Watch how quickly the Mac's only successful niche would shrivel up and disappear. It would be hilarious to watch how Steve would react to such a move.

I don't know if that would really work, but it would be entertaining none the less.




RE: What Adobe should do
By DeathBooger on 4/9/2010 2:56:27 PM , Rating: 2
Such a move would hurt Adobe more than Apple. The Mac platform is currently a very popular professional platform for their software. If you remove the platform you remove the sales. Apple would be barely affected since the majority of their sales come from iPods, iPhones, etc.

Apple is in the position to play hardball, Adobe isn't. Also, Flash needs to die. First, it makes no sense that a majority of sites depend on a plug-in now when a standardized method like HTML5 now exists. Secondly, since Adobe acquired Flash from Macromedia it hasn't done much with it aside from patch in features rather sloppily.


RE: What Adobe should do
By wiz220 on 4/9/2010 4:32:36 PM , Rating: 2
I dunno, I think Abrahmm has a point. The company I'm an admin for has only 3 Macs, all of them in our graphics department and I can guarantee you that if Adobe went away for Macs, they'd be on PC's pretty quick. Adobe is the ONLY reason we have those Macs.

I'm not saying every company or user is like this. But Abrahmm is right that the graphics niche is definitely the biggest for Macs (and about the ONLY niche they've got as far as the business world is concerned). Take that away and I think it would have a noticeable impact on Apple.


RE: What Adobe should do
By Solandri on 4/9/2010 8:25:47 PM , Rating: 2
Adobe software isn't the only reason graphics people like Macs. Apple knows its bread and butter is graphics people, so they go out of their way to support them. All Mac hardware comes color calibrated (in that you don't have to calibrate it with a colorimeter, and it'll still be pretty accurate), and their software supports color profiles natively.

Windows has always added support for color profiles as an afterthought. Vista even broke it completely. Every time a UAC box came up or the screensaver kicked in, Vista would unload any color profile you had loaded. Microsoft never bothered to fix it, and told graphics people to wait for/upgrade to Windows 7. Windows 7 finally seems to have decent color profile support. But AFAIK, so far Firefox and Safari are the only browsers for Windows which are color space aware (i.e. they show a web site's pictures as the site's author meant them to be seen, not subject to the whims of your video card and monitor's color settings).

I know Apple's "It just works" slogan is frequently subject to ridicule. But in the case of color support on Macs, it really is true.


Hard choice
By Hieyeck on 4/9/2010 2:06:07 PM , Rating: 5
What to hate more... Apple sheepware or Adobe bloatware?




RE: Hard choice
By Suntan on 4/9/2010 2:27:31 PM , Rating: 2
Pretty much spot on.

Although I have no love for Adobe or its p*ss poor business practices, I can’t help but see similarities in how Apple is using its clout with its closed hardware to force competition out, similar to the large legal battles that MS had to deal with over their browser being part of the Windows OS.

I know an OS is not the same as a piece of hardware, and I know that a browser is not the same as flash, but the fact remains, Apple is using its monopolistic influence (in the handheld/tablet market) to force other companies into conforming to their wishes elsewhere (internet standards.) Which I do not think is right.

-Suntan


RE: Hard choice
By reader1 on 4/9/10, Rating: -1
RE: Hard choice
By rocky12345 on 4/9/2010 6:02:19 PM , Rating: 2
No dude it's Apple that is doing the forcing because it is them that is blocking the flash content on their products most of the users have no idea what is going on so do not use that arguement it just does not work here. Most users don't know what flash is or HTML5 all they care about is it just needs to work for them & if youtube & facebook come up right then they are in bliss. Apple is counting on this type of ignorance I see they found that in you hmmmmm.


RE: Hard choice
By kattanna on 4/9/2010 2:31:39 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
over priced Adobe exploit laden bloatware


there.. fixed it for you.

honestly, it seems like for every new month, or even week sometimes, there is yet another new way for a PDF to take over your computer. thats simply wrong.


ha
By Chiisuchianu on 4/9/2010 1:10:05 PM , Rating: 5
Good riddance to them. They set on their asses while they had a monopoly. Flash is garbage and they had a chance to fix that but they didn't. They deserve to have their dominance destroyed.




RE: ha
By redbone75 on 4/9/2010 7:01:26 PM , Rating: 3
I wholly agree. Apple is far and away a company I despise, but Adobe isn't too far off. People thought Microsoft was obscene for what they used to charge for Office? What about Photoshop? Long live Aviary!!

Also, I'm disgusted with how Adobe tries to trick you into installing their download manager. Why not just a direct link to the file and let ME determine what I want to d/l and when I want to update?!?!

And Flash is garbage! There's no reason for it to be the resource hog it is.


Flash is for old men in trench coats
By hiscross on 4/9/2010 2:39:54 PM , Rating: 2
who uses Driods and Andriods. Creepy people




By Anoxanmore on 4/9/2010 3:05:44 PM , Rating: 2
Soo... those are your clients? ;)

<3


By B3an on 4/9/2010 3:30:26 PM , Rating: 2
You've said that before. iSheep.


By Abrahmm on 4/9/2010 4:17:15 PM , Rating: 2
The people that can make a conscious decision based on logic and thought and not just follow the iPhad crowd for the latest under-performing, over-priced fashion item. That's probably who uses Android. Luckily for us that number is exploding while the iPhad crowd has gone stagnant.


3 Apps to avoid
By Supa on 4/9/2010 4:17:40 PM , Rating: 1
Three Apps to avoid:

Flash

Java

Quicktime

---




RE: 3 Apps to avoid
By eddieroolz on 4/9/2010 5:47:45 PM , Rating: 2
iTunes, a trojan horse for Quicktime (or it was at least).

Acrobat.


RE: 3 Apps to avoid
By ArenaNinja on 4/9/2010 5:52:40 PM , Rating: 2
You know, I was all for iTunes hate until I discovered iTunes U. Keeps my MIT lectures tidy, and I do like having them on my physical drive. It really is that convenient.


RE: 3 Apps to avoid
By eddieroolz on 4/10/2010 12:21:56 AM , Rating: 2
I want to agree with you, but my professors don't record their lectures, sadly. Would be nice if they did.


RE: 3 Apps to avoid
By ArenaNinja on 4/9/2010 5:51:38 PM , Rating: 1
I agree entirely.

Today, I checked my Win 7 notifications. Stats:
- Flash has crashed my browser 74 times
- Java has crashed my browser 16 times

I don't do anything Quicktime related, so it hasn't had a chance to do so. I do have iTunes, but I only installed it recently.


Isn't this what got MS in trouble
By Nekrik on 4/9/2010 6:01:14 PM , Rating: 3
obviously Apple has not been declared a monopoly yet, but isn't this close to the behavior that got MS into trouble way back when with the browsers? Only in this case Apple is putting up a barrier to prevent the competing software from even running on their platform.

Before every anti-ms poster jumps in saying one was a monopoly, apple is not, my point is that this looks like the behavior that could get them clasified as one.




By Shadowself on 4/9/2010 6:49:55 PM , Rating: 2
This is so far away from what got Microsoft into trouble as to be like a black and white comparison.

First Apple would have to have a commanding market share in something. Even in the iPhone arena it does not have a commanding market share (Apple just thinks it does). Certainly it does not yet have a commanding market share in tablet PCs. Obviously it does not have a commanding market share in computers. Thus Apple does not have a monopoly in anything.

Then Apple would have to tie a relatively unknown, little used, and internally developed piece of software to something that is being shipped as part of its monopoly (which monopoly it does not have [see above]). This tie in would have to be done *well after* the monopoly is established. This would be an attempt to extend its control in a market where it has virtually no presence by tying its new product to its monopoly.

Then Apple would have to make it virtually impossible (or at least claim it is virtually impossible) to use anything other than its new product on its platform that holds the monopoly. Thus cementing the tie in in the minds of prospective customers. This would be the final "smoking gun" which shows it is using the monopoly to "force" customers of its monopoly product to use the new product.

This is what Microsoft was convicted of doing.
A. Had a monopoly with Windows (95+% of the installed base).
B. Had an virtually unused piece of software (IE) in an area where Microsoft had virtually no presense (browsers).
C. Tied the software (IE) to the monopoly (imbedded IE into Windows).
D. Made that sofware (IE) the default browser for all actions.
E. Told the world that it was virtually impossible to remove IE from Windows and that doing so would cripple Windows. (They actually claimed this in court!)
F. Used that tie in to the Windows monopoly to expand into the browser market.

It is the tie in to an already estabished monopoly and forced expansion that is illegal. Having a monopoly is NOT illegal. Not shipping software is not illegal.

While Apple may do many things with which I diagree and may consider unethical, so far Apple has done nothing analagous to what got Microsoft into monopolistic practices legal trouble.


serves them right
By Breathless on 4/9/2010 1:58:36 PM , Rating: 3
serves them right for not implementing 64-bit yet for muh browsas.




By vertigo1 on 4/11/2010 6:13:17 PM , Rating: 3
I wonder what kind of comments arguments would be made.... if Microsoft deliberately prevented itunes or any other competitive software from running on their Windows platform?

What Apple are doing is protecting the lions share of games revenue that would be lost through free games made in flash/shockwave... on websites..

Apple have a lot of weight behind them and they are throwing it around and funnily enough despite although people generally the high road of ethics when it comes to these sites, there are those who actually believe the Apple's rather lame reasonings for doing HTML 5 only video....

Peace.

Jon




Apple, introducing iPad...
By bupkus on 4/9/2010 6:22:56 PM , Rating: 2
and tearing down the boundaries in fashion accessories.




I like where this is going
By vapore0n on 4/12/2010 10:38:42 AM , Rating: 2
Jobs has a lot of push in this market. Like it or not, this is forcing Adobe to update their crap, and forcing companies to support html5. We the users will end up having now the option to choose which one we want (in our desktops at least, forget about iphones)




Adobe may strike back
By FORSAGE on 4/19/2010 3:31:33 PM , Rating: 2
They surely can ruin Apple's day by canceling stuff like Photoshop for OSX, but I wonder if they can also break PDF support for it. It's their patented format, no?

Watching Steve Jobs explaining his customers they dont need PDF support on Macs would be... interesting.




By sapiens74 on 4/9/2010 4:44:04 PM , Rating: 1
On so many sites.

I'm with Apple on this one. Open the standards, End Adobe's dominance.




Oh please..
By Griswold on 4/10/2010 5:11:38 AM , Rating: 1
Adobe is rightfully concerned as flash is shit. But attributing this to El Steve-O and his fruit company is a sign of having no clue.

Next thing we'll here is that HTML5 is really Stevies invention... just like the wheel, electricity and of course sliced bread.




Punishing Adobe is fair
By Ziggizag on 4/10/2010 6:33:22 AM , Rating: 1
I won't regret if Flash is put down. Adobe was verry arrogant while overtaking Macromedia and they neglected completly the wonderful application called Director what looks now like abandonware. For years the only word we could hear was "Flash" and they enjoyed closing the application from 3-rd party extensions.

In the result, there was no progress but regress. Flash evolved into messy Flex what like Java - completly unfriendly to graphic designers, yet another scripting environment for geeky programmers. I fuck Flash - I really hope it will diminish and Unity 3D will overcome the market!




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