Open letter to Adobe Systems

And this is posted without the use of FLASH from a perfectly functional iPad.

To the CEO of Adobe Systems:

You're entitled to respond to this publicly if you desire. I am happy to discuss this letter because what I am about to say is very simple.

Adobe Systems has had ample time to break into the iPhone and create a version of flash running on this phone for a substantial amount of time. What's funny is that if they have, nobody seems to have seen it. No one there has stepped up and taken the initiative to make this happen.

You have the tools, you have the staff, and if the iphone was so important to you, you would have surely stepped up and done this some time ago just to prove to Steve Jobs that you could do it. So as Wendy's said in the old days "WHERE'S THE BEEF"?

I am personally surprised that you stand there and say there's nothing wrong with FLASH. Do you ever visit the tech support team to see the number of calls that come in over flash being tested on the same web pages using different browsers on the same computer systems and all of them experiencing flash crashing those same web pages, both on MACs and PCs. It's not just APPLE Computers having these problems. Gateway, EMachines, etc.

So how can you sit in San Jose and claim that Apple is the bad guy here while wanting to keep their phones and ipads up and running without the use of Flash? Why don't you create a lite version of it so that it does not suck batteries dry and does not render the phone useless and then show that to Steve Jobs and the rest of Apple?

Or are you in the position of not being able to admit that this cannot be done? I'd be willing to say that's why you've not done this. Of course you can prove me wrong...or can you?

Apple and Adobe have had a long history together. I've been lucky enough to be a part of that history on some levels. From Sales of Adobe & Apple products, to support of them, to beta testing them, and to supporting the Crew that made Toy Story while I worked as Steve's Macintosh Systems Engineer credited in that very same movie as such.

I've used FLASH since its inception/creation and now because of the instability and the number of crashes I've experienced with it running under Snow Leopard (some 400 of them since SL launched). I've crashed it with Safari, Firefox, Chrome, Camino and even an old version of Netscape running on my Mac Mini. I've crashed it running on a Gateway MT3416 laptop in IE6, and IE8 as well as Chrome, Firefox and even OPERA on the PC. You have a problem with your plugin and you need to fix it. If you're sitting there saying you don't, then your dealer sold you some bad crack and you need to get your money back.

The real challenge in this letter is this: Successfully produce a version of flash running on a jailbroken iPhone and/or iPAD for demo purposes. Show it running and displaying Adobe.com (one of the sites that crashed my browsers ironically) and show it to the world if you can within 3 weeks. If you can't then step down from your position because you don't belong there. Adobe has teams that can implement this from the ground up and they should be able to do so quickly.

Your stance in this is completely counter productive. Steve Jobs merely threw the gauntlet down and said FIX this. Your reply of "We'll develop for everyone else other than the iPhone is a step in the wrong direction. The most popular phone on the planet is the iPhone. To do otherwise is not in the best interest of Adobe and your board should replace you.

Michael Murdock, CEO
DocMurdock.com
ceo@docmurdock.com

Sent from my iPad