Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch Responds To Apple's Latest iPhone SDK

By now you've heard about the ongoing war between Adobe and Apple. You've probably heard about it even if you live under a rock. It's everywhere, and as we expected, it didn't die down after the launch of the iPad. In fact, it seems to be getting worse after the announcement of iPhone OS 4.0. Especially when folks started navigating through the fine print and legal documentation, and we started to learn that Steve Jobs and company had begun a far stricter implementation of the rules for their SDK. More importantly, they tied the noose around Adobe's figurative neck a bit tighter.

At its most basic level, Jobs doesn't want Adobe powering any applications on his new devices, such as the iPod Touch, iPhone, or iPad. Even if Adobe's CS5 product, Flash Professional, allows for developers to compile and package their finished product in a format for iPhone OS, Apple doesn't want any part of it. If a developer tries to submit an application developed in that format, they will actually violate Apple's new Terms of Service, and therefore their application is going to get kicked to the curb, rather than accepted into loving arms.

Writing on Adobe's Conversations blog, CTO Kevin Lynch told all those listening that the iPhone packager was going to remain, and that if developers wanted to develop their applications in this format, they weren't going to stop them. The only company that would be hindering the developers would be Apple, and therefore Lynch and the rest of Adobe is leaving it up to the figureheads at Cupertino to figure out the details. The truth is, and Lynch knows this, Adobe is everywhere, and if Apple doesn't allow for developers to build in Adobe products, other companies will. There's open arms somewhere else, basically. Apple isn't the only house on the block. At this point, this fight is just beginning, ladies and gentlemen. It's time to choose your side.

[via Adobe]