Google's 'Don't Be Evil' Mantra is ‘Bulls**t,’ Adobe Is Lazy: Apple's Steve Jobs
After a big public announcement of the sort Apple had this week for the iPad CEO Steve Jobs often takes time in the day or two afterwards to have a Town Hall at One Infinite Loop, making himself available …
Context & Ripple Effects
Google’s corporate motto had already drawn scrutiny in a 2006 critique of its “Don’t Be Evil” stance. Against that backdrop, Jobs’s comments turn a branding claim into a direct point of conflict between two companies with expanding influence.
The remarks follow Apple’s iPad announcement and a confirmed public dispute with Adobe over Flash’s exclusion from the device. With the iPad also facing backlash, Apple is using the Flash question to define what kind of software experience its new device will permit.
First-order effects
- Adobe faces greater pressure to defend Flash as Apple publicly frames the platform’s absence from the iPad as a consequence of Adobe’s execution.
- Google must absorb a high-profile challenge to the credibility of its defining motto from Apple’s chief executive.
Second-order effects
- The Apple–Adobe dispute makes Flash support a sharper decision for publishers and developers seeking access to the iPad’s audience.
- Apple gains a clearer competitive distinction for the iPad by tying its software rules to reliability and performance rather than treating Flash exclusion as a quiet product limitation.
Third-order effects
- If major device makers increasingly decide which runtimes and software layers reach users, developer access will depend more on platform rules set by hardware vendors than on broad web distribution.
- The exchange signals a widening contest in which corporate principles, application compatibility, and control of consumer platforms become inseparable competitive issues.
The trend: Consumer-device platforms are becoming gatekeepers of the software technologies and developer paths that reach their users.