Edible Apple

The brouhaha surrounding Apple’s decision to disallow apps on iTunes that were developed using cross-platform development tools, such as Adobe’s Flash to iPhone compiler, has generated a considerable amount of vitriol from those quick to paint Apple as an evil company with no regard whatsoever for developers.

Without getting into the merits of each side at the moment, it might be a good time to go back in time and remember how often Apple had to “wait around” for Adobe to develop apps for what was then its new OS X operating system. Luckily, Innderdaemon compiled a pretty extensive list of examples. It’s certainly worth checking out, if only for some historical context.

Back in the early 2000’s – hell, all the way up to 2006, Adobe showed not one iota of interest in developing OS X native versions of Adobe Premiere, Photoshop, After Effects, FrameMaker, GoLive etc. And you know what, that was their business decision. Indeed, with just a paltry share of the desktop market at the time, deciding not to develop for OS X probably made a lot of sense. But Steve Jobs has a long memory, and he’s been around the block once or twice. Putting any amount of control over the iPhone experience in the hands of Adobe, or any other company for that matter, just ain’t gonna happen.

Innerdaemon concludes:

Sorry, Adobe, you screwed yourself. You made a business decision in 1996 to screw Apple when it needed you most to gain credibility for its fledgling OS with the creative crowd. Somehow, Apple making a business decision to protect its customers from your shitty product is the most egregious ethical concern of our time.

How about Adobe start fixing their relationship with the Apple community one step at a time: fix Flash for the desktop and then we can chat about the iPhone, iPad and i….