Adobe focuses on Android but open to Apple deal

Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen in an interview this weekend claimed a more neutral stance in his company's ongoing differences with Apple. He now interprets Apple's decision to reject Flash on iOS as a business decision to "control the environment" and told the Telegraph that the difference wasn't worth continuing a dispute. Adobe still prefers an open platform that will cater to Flash, the executive said, but won't engage in heated fights.

"We believe in the power of the internet and in customers making choices and I think a lot of the controversy was about their decision at that point," Narayen said. "They've made their choice. We've made ours and we've moved on."

The position is a partial reversal from the approach just after Apple chief Steve Jobs explained the decision to reject Flash on the iPhone for the near future. At the time, Narayen had accused Jobs of shifting blame and said crashes, slowdowns or excess battery drain were Apple's doing. He has now asserted that the launch of Flash 10.1 on a handful of devices, so far limited to the Nexus One and Droid 2, was proof Flash was "suitable" for phones.

The company has nonetheless faced significant setbacks as the fragmentation of Android has kept almost all devices from using Flash while BlackBerry, webOS and other platforms are still far from getting their own Flash 10.1 updates. Adobe still has until the end of 2010 to meet its targets but has already delayed full Flash for mobile for more than a year.

Adobe is known to be hedging its bets and is partly responsible for US investigations into Apple over its cross-compiling rules. A win wouldn't force Apple to incorporate full Flash but might make it allow native iPhone apps compiled using Flash as the source tool.

In spite of shifting to other platforms, Narayen was adamant that the "doors are open" to collaboration with Apple and that it was Apple's prerogative to implement Flash once again.

By Electronista Staff