Adobe CS5 Unfortunate Grand Opening1

Adobe seems to have really positioned itself simultaneously as the victim and victor in its Creative Suite 5 Launch Event today. I really have to say bravo to the Adobe team for not changing its launch presentation videos to reflect the new Apple restrictions on developer software. For those who do not know, the iPhone Developer Program License Agreement states:

“3.3.1 — Applications may only use Documented APIs in the manner prescribed by Apple and must not use or call any private APIs. Applications must be originally written in Objective-C, C, C++, or JavaScript as executed by the iPhone OS WebKit engine, and only code written in C, C++, and Objective-C may compile and directly link against the Documented APIs (e.g., Applications that link to Documented APIs through an intermediary translation or compatibility layer or tool are prohibited).”

What this means is that some of the key new features in the CS5 suite that allow developers to create applications in Flash and export as an App Store-friendly product are no longer viable.  I am sure that when Adobe produced these videos, their intent wasn’t to stir up negative emotions towards Apple, but it did.  In fact, I wouldn’t be terribly surprised if lawyers will be involved soon.

EDIT: Rumors suggest I’m right…

Wasn't while shooting, but this still works for disappointment.

Adobe’s suite of products provides me the ability to do my job effectively, and I love it.  Broadly speaking, creative types love working on Macs.  Broadly speaking, creative types also use Adobe products.  How does it not make sense for Apple and Adobe to have a great working relationship?  Is Adobe developing some kind of Photoshop… phonepad?  I’m lost.

Without the prior week’s headlines, Adobe’s unveiling today would have been perfect.  What Adobe has done in this presentation is show how far they have been willing to go (and how much to spend) to offer support for Apple products.  Anybody following the news lately or the Twitter feed on that presentation page knows that Apple has virtually cut them off at the knees with the changes to the developer agreement.  This, as far as anyone can tell, was deliberately targeted at Adobe.  Not changing their very enthusiastic presentation painted Apple as a big bullish company headed by a megalomaniac.  Recommended reading: iCon

At the same time, Adobe is NOT a victim. For all practical purposes, “everybody else” is on board with open development standards. Perfectly willing and able to get along fine without Apple. They are confident that creatives will create just as surely as water always eventually finds a way out.  While the rest are still catching up to the App Store infrastructure, never forget that sooner or later they will.

Wow, there are a lot of not-Apple logos here.

The unfortunate part is mostly for Apple. It only makes sense to release iPhone on different carriers. Billions of dollars in revenue depend on it. Making iPhone exclusive to AT&T for the first few years created a demographic that is either happy with their service (vs. AT&T’s famous dropped call rate) but not their hardware or is stuck with their service provider. When iPhone breaks out to other carriers, phones and apps will be selling like beers at a Twins game.  Apple will do just fine without Adobe.

It’s difficult to determine who gets hurt more in this situation between the two of them.  However, it is clear that developers and creatives get hurt the most when big companies fight each other.  The App Store is suddenly less accessible to me, and I didn’t do anything to provoke this.

Can’t we just use the new content-aware fill in CS5 to fix the iPhone Developer Program License Agreement?