The context of this story

Year: 2011
People: Steve Jobs

What will be the outcome?

What can be done about it? Adobe messed up with Apple a long time ago and is now reaping the results of its policy. Apple is not doing anything about Adobe’s dominance on desktops, but for a number of good reasons, it has no intention of letting it into mobile phones. Let’s repeat the reasons: irresponsible approach to security, closed nature, proprietary nature, high performance requirements, and inability to adapt to the customs of specific platforms.

Adobe was in a difficult position. Not only because of Apple, but also because of its clients and Internet users. As one analyst noted, [”]{dir=”rtl”}mobile platforms don’t have enough performance reserves to afford Adobe products.”

Adobe tried to reverse the unfavorable trend for most of 2011, with its management sending emotional letters to all sides, appealing to users and developers alike. But Steve Jobs was tough, unyielding, and remembered all too well the humiliation he had suffered at the turn of the millennium, and he had no intention of continuing to support Adobe. Adobe threw in the towel in November 2011 and announced that it was ending all plans to support mobile Flash. Why? Because it decided to focus on supporting HTML5, which, as Adobe stated in a press release, [”]{dir=”rtl”}is now supported on all mobile platforms, some exclusively.” The company is now focusing on expanding its development packages to support HTML5 and hopes to play the same role in this field as it did with Flash. It should be added that this will not be so easy, because HTML5 is an open format that is more difficult to use to promote its own business agenda than was the case with Flash. Adobe will no longer be able to replicate the strategy of using Flash Player as a Trojan horse to assert its dominance in Internet video. Although it would be useful to repeat the same approach with mobile video, its position here is much more difficult, as it will have to compete with standards, which is not so easy.

Steve Jobs ultimately achieved not only his goal with his sharp disagreement and unyielding stance, but also, surprisingly for many, by limiting his iOS mobile platform, he fought for greater freedom and creativity for developers than they get on the “normal web,” where Flash is the de facto standard for interactivity in the web environment, with all the advantages and, above all, disadvantages that this brings.

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