So, it seems Adobe and Apple have decided to spend some money advertising by means of “open letters” Here’s my letter to both of them.

We get it, you don’t mean any harm and you think what you’re doing/asking for is best for the consumer.

The case for Adobe.

In an ideal world, it would be awesome if I wrote something once, and it worked across all platforms. It really would be cool if I could press a button and my code became an iPhone, Android, Windows Mobile, Blackberry app.

The case against Adobe.
Individual companies have been trying this for years, we’ve called it different things, and they’ve failed.

Sun started this with Java, “it’s cross platform! write once, run anywhere! world peace!”. How many people still use Java “applets”?.

Youtube and other flash player based websites were awesome, finally, one didn’t need realplayer, windows media player, and some other start ups “innovative” new adware player. The consumers made the case for you, and you won that battle. Then you proceeded to drop your pants, and dance.. and you got caught. You didn’t anticipate the growth in mobile phones for browsing, you didn’t think about how your tech would be used in web browsers where the mouse wasn’t the primary form of input.

Had you any foresight, leadership and innovation, you wouldn’t be in this situation. You’re trying to confuse the masses, because you yourself are confused. Who is your customer? The App developers? The Web developers? Or is it the people who are using the apps, and browsing the web sites? If you follow the money, in the end, your
customers are the people who don’t care what technology is used, as long as they get the content they thought they were going to get.

You have not made the same case for mobile devices, on phones that do support flash, the experience of viewing a flash website is horrible. You’ve had since 2006 to solve this issue, and from all recent reports.. you haven’t made any progress. So, with a 4 year track record of failing…. why should anyone trust you?

Why should we think that your cross platform tools will work as expected? You haven’t been able to keep up with changes in the mobile landscape, what makes you think you’ll keep up with changes?

The case for Apple.
You’ve spent a lot of time money building the iPhone OS, and you’re about to reveal OS Touch, or whatever Steve decides to call it. You’ve made it clear, you don’t care about quantity, your only concern is quality, and in the process you’ll piss people off. In the world of hardware development, you’re actually faster than most people would like to admit, or give you credit for.

The case against Apple.
You could screw up, you could take away a feature, or you could incorporate a feature into your OS that negates an app completely. We’re all aware of it, and it’s a risk we’re willing to take. Because, for the past 10 years, your track record, makes us want to be on your side.

Apple, fanboys will justify anything you do, and haters will find something wrong with you saving all the puppies in the world.

So What’s Next?
Adobe, first admit that you dropped the ball, go back to the drawing board, and come back. Don’t try to win a PR war for something that doesn’t exist. Flash for mobile doesn’t suck because of Apple, it sucks because of you. Apple is historically slow in adopting technologies, they weren’t the first with the mp3 player, the touch phone, the tablet, but they are the best. Get that through your ego.

Apple, keep doing what you’re doing, I wish you were more open about your intentions, but I understand that development by committee doesn’t make sense, and your committee would become too big, too quickly. We all remember System 7, copland, and your other failures. It’s obvious you do too, keep it up, don’t get too cocky.

An Open Letter to closed companies is a post from Pear Analytics, an SEO tools and software company.