Written by james | 07 June 2010
Posted in Web Design

Steve Jobs, Adobe and the future of Flash are yet again thrown into the discussion trend, when Jobs attended the All Things Digital D8 Conference. Of course there were other topics Apple’s CEO  wanted to discuss, but Flash was still a subject of interest.


So far, the war being waged between Apple and Adobe first started to escalate when Jobs made a post on Open letter titled “thoughts on Flash”. Adobe then hit back with their appropriate “we love apple” ad campaign. At the Google I/O conference, Adobe also had a strong presence, and between them and Google plenty of jabs were taken in Apple’s general direction.

Though Jobs presumes HTML5 is the alternative to flash, Adobe made a few announcements around HTML5 and Flash, including a HTML5 Pack for Dreamweaver CS5. There was much talk of how both technologies can collaborate a way forward together, but at D8, Jobs stated, “Flash looks like a technology that has had its day but is really waning, and HTML5 looks like the technology that looks like its on the ascendancy right now”. Jobs is definitely not convinced that Flash can keep up-to-date or even its usefulness.

In an effort to save some sort of reputation or respect, Jobs goes on to say, “We're trying to make great products for people, and we have at least the courage of our convictions to say, 'We don't think this is part of what makes a great product. We're gonna leave it out.' That's what a lot of customers pay us to do - is to try to make the best products we can, and if we can succeed, they'll buy them. And if we don't, they won’t. It will all work itself out." Then Jobs adds smugly, “So far I have to say, that people are liking iPads”.

While Flash still has a purpose to people, and HTML5 supports coding for it, is Apple just causing a problem where there is none. If someone needs to use Flash, they will simply have no choice but to buy products that are non-Apple, and that doesn’t sound good. Whatever your thoughts, be sure to post a comment with your views on this heated dissagreement.