In a blog post Tuesday, Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch responded to Apple's recent criticisms of the Flash platform and warns that a switch to HTML5 would throw users and content creators back to the dark ages of video on the web. Lynch goes on to cite many of the same shortcomings of HTML5 video that we outlined in our post on the topic Monday.
First, here's Lynch on Apple's failure to support Flash on the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad:
We are ready to enable Flash in the browser on these devices if and when Apple chooses to allow that for its users, but to date we have not had the required cooperation from Apple to make this happen.
And later:
Engaging with ideas and information also means ensuring there is an open ecosystem and freedom to view and interact with the content and applications a user chooses. This model of open access has proven to be more effective in the long term than a walled approach, where a manufacturer tries to determine what users are able to see or approves and disapproves individual content and applications. We strongly believe the web should remain an open environment with consistent access to content and applications regardless of your viewing device.
These strong words are no doubt directed at Apple, which is actively keeping Flash off of its newest devices.
As reported by Wired's Epicenter blog, Steve Jobs laid into Adobe at an Apple employee meeting last week, calling the company lazy and deriding its Flash Player as buggy, saying Apple is refusing to support it in Mobile Safari for stability reasons.
To defend against that particular statement, Lynch also points out that Adobe has been busy enhancing Flash Player 10.1 (which will be released within a few months) to work better on Android, BlackBerry, Nokia and Palm devices and not just phones, but tablets, netbooks and other so-called transitional devices where Flash has historically had a negative effect on performance.
In other words, Lynch says Adobe is working on making Flash perform better on everyone else's tablets and phones, just not Apple's.
And here's Lynch on the notion that HTML5 will threaten Flash's dominance:
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