Adobe’s chief technology officer Kevin Lynch has claimed that Apple’s refusal to allow apps developed in Flash on the iPhone is “like 1984 in a lot of ways.”
Lynch was speaking at Web 2.0 in San Francisco and made the comments when asked about “the elephant in the room” during a Q&A session.
The technology issue that Apple has with us is not that Flash doesn’t work on the iPhone, but that it does work
“The technology issue that Apple has with us is not that Flash doesn’t work on the iPhone, but that it does work. You can actually make a great Flash app that runs across operating systems, and they don’t like that,” he said.
The comments follow those of Apple chief executive Steve Jobs who claimed Flash was closed, unreliable, insecure and a hindrance to web development in a rare public letter.
However, Lynch argued that by taking such strict control of the platform Apple was acting like “big brother” and hurting innovation on the web.
“You should be able choose whatever technologies you want to choose and create whatever you want to create,” he said. “The web has been very successful because it’s been a really open environment for content and applications.
“I don’t think it’s the role of a company to exercise that judgment on what people are making. That’s the role of society and law,” he added, alluding to reports that US antitrust watchdogs were considering investigating Apple’s actions.
Despite Apple’s insistence that HTML5 will one day usurp Flash, Lynch claimed there was room for both technologies on the web, and that companies that made best use of both would ultimately win out.
“All the variety of innovation that’s happening from all these companies is going to dwarf what’s happening from one company,” he said.
“We’ve seen this before. I think we’re at the beginning of the game not the end of the game. I think it’s like 1984.”
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