IPad Magnifies Apple's Flash Feud
Apple Inc. and Adobe Systems Inc. used to be cozy partners, but they have become increasingly estranged since the computer maker unveiled its iPad tablet late last month. — While Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs announced that the iPad will revolutionize Web surfing …
Context & Ripple Effects
The estrangement between Apple and Adobe has been building since Steve Jobs pulled back the curtain on the iPad in late January 2010, a device pitched as revolutionizing Web surfing while shipping without Adobe's Flash runtime. What was once a cozy partnership — Adobe tools powering much of the creative work behind Apple platforms — now sits at the center of a public dispute over which software gets to run on the new tablet.
Reaction around the February 2010 unveiling split sharply: commentary at the time described a 'tsunami of excessive criticism' aimed at the iPad, with Jobs appearing indifferent to it. A widely read op-ed argued Apple should add Flash so users could watch Hulu, while another columnist's attack on Apple's 'blind spot' over Flash support drew significant reader backlash — evidence that the missing plugin, not the hardware, had become the story.
First-order effects
- Adobe loses the default position its Flash runtime held on the desktop Web: every iPad sold ships unable to display Flash-based video, games, and ads, cutting Adobe off from the fastest-growing device category of the moment.
- Content producers who built their sites on Flash must decide immediately whether to rebuild in alternatives like HTML5 or accept degraded experiences for early iPad buyers.
Second-order effects
- Publishers and media companies are forced to pick sides: supporting the iPad means funding parallel non-Flash versions of their properties, shifting development budgets toward whatever runtime Apple permits.
- Rival device makers gain an opening to differentiate on openness, marketing Flash compatibility against the iPad just as Apple positions the tablet as an eBook reader competing directly with Amazon's Kindle.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, platform owners rather than standards bodies become the de facto arbiters of which Web runtimes reach consumers — control over the device doubles as control over the open Web's technology stack.
- A single vendor's refusal to carry a once-universal plugin points toward a Web organized around native apps and sanctioned formats, eroding the browser-plugin era that made Flash ubiquitous in the first place.
The trend: Device makers are asserting veto power over which Web runtimes ship on their hardware, turning platform control into the decisive force shaping Web technology adoption.