iPad fight as Apple's Steve Jobs takes on Adobe

Reuters

Steve Jobs holds the new iPad during the launch of Apple's new tablet computing device in San Francisco.

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A deep-seated hatred is developing between Apple chief executive Steve Jobs and the creators of the technology powering 75 per cent of video on the web, with the dispute now public and impacting on Apple's products.

The iPhone, and now the iPad, both lack support for Adobe Flash, an inexplicable omission for many users who have become used to Flash as one of the most common plugins on their desktop and laptop computers.

Jobs and Adobe have traded barbs over the issue. Adobe has called the iPad restricted and Jobs has fired back with claims that Adobe is lazy and its software causes the Mac to crash.

Salient elements of many web pages are coded using Flash, as well as most online video content.

These are not viewable on an iPhone or iPad, except for YouTube clips, which play in a special YouTube application that was developed for the devices.

Apple was forced to modify its promotional material for the iPad after part of its advertisement showed Flash content displayed on The New York Times site, which would not be possible on the device.

The alleged false advertising prompted one graphic designer to file a complaint with the US Federal Trade Commission. Apple rectified the issue by correcting the ad.

In a blog post last week, Adobe group manager Adrian Ludwig railed against iPad and restrictions on Apple devices "that limit both content publishers and consumers".

"Without Flash support, iPad users will not be able to access the full range of web content, including over 70% of games and 75% of video on the web," Ludwig wrote.

This limitation does not apply to the games and other content available through Apple's App Store, as these apps are coded specifically to suit Apple's devices.

On the unofficial TheFlashBlog.com, Adobe platform evangelist Lee Brimelow provided several screen shots showing examples of web content that would be unavailable on the iPad, such as parts of CNN.com, Farmville.com, video streaming websites such as Hulu.com, porn sites, graphics on Google Finance, web games and much of Disney.com.

Jobs fired back over the weekend in a private "Town Hall" meeting with Apple employees, Wired reported.

According to an unnamed source at Apple who was quoted by Wired, Jobs called Adobe lazy, saying it had the potential to do interesting things but refused to do it.

He said Apple did not support Flash because it was so buggy, and that whenever a Mac crashed it was more often than not because of Flash. He said the world was moving towards a new standard, HTML5, which would replace Flash.

Jobs also used the opportunity to launch a broadside at Google, saying the search giant entered the phone industry with its Nexus One device in order to kill the iPhone.

Wired reported he also called Google's "Don't be evil" corporate mantra "bullsh*t", although a different source told DaringFireball.net that Jobs actually said the mantra was "a load of crap".

It is not clear why Apple so steadfastly refuses to incorporate Flash support into its products, even though it is now a de facto web standard.

Some have opined that Flash support would allow developers to create richer applications from inside the web browser, which means they would be able to bypass Apple's App Store.

Separately, Nintendo - with which Apple increasingly competes due to the use of the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad as gaming devices - shrugged off the iPad on the weekend as delivering "no surprises".

"It was a bigger iPod Touch," Nintendo's president Satoru Iwata said.

- © Fairfax NZ News