Adobe Flash - Customer is King !!

Last few months have been not kind to Adobe.  Apple, the creator of MAC operating system, has openly challenged Adobe on Flash, calling it a legacy application, buggy, slow and consuming too much power.  Adobe makes majority of its revenue and profits by selling applications which work on MAC and Flash was one of the main reasons for Adobe to acquire Macromedia in 2005. 

As Web as gained prominence in the last decade and print has lost relevance, PDF is no longer the growth engine that drives Adobe business.  Web is the future and Flash is at the center of Adobe strategy for web. Without Flash, Adobe will struggle to grow its business and maintain its 40% operating margin. Adobe has spent last couple of years battling Microsoft's Silverlight and just when it seemed Adobe has managed to slowdown Microsoft's momentum with Silverlight, Apple has directly aimed at Flash, that too with a religious zeal.

Clearly, Adobe has been pushed to a corner. And its attempt to create some elbow room, by allowing developers to embed Flash Player inside application, has been circumvented by change in licensing policy by Apple.

Left with no options, Adobe has come out with print ads "We love Apple", "We love Choice" and finally making an effort to connect with the customer.  This is certainly not the last word in this powerful tussle.  It is hard to pinpoint a specific reason for this strongly negative view Apple has been propagating about Adobe Flash.  By trying to push HTML5 instead of already established Adobe Flash, Apple risks alienating customers and developers who like Flash.  Apple might also provide some respite to Google and Research in Motion who are struggling to catch up with their offerings.  Android already supports Flash and Google is obviously using its support for Flash as a marketing tool.  Blackberry is not behind.  Is fighting Flash more important than preserving the strong market position that Apple has with iPhone? Apple is clearly aiming for strong market dominance which is hard to create and sustain in this hyper competitive world. 

In my personal view, "Customer is King".  Future of Flash will be decided by the customers, not Apple. Adobe best chance lies in making sure Flash succeeds on Android and Blackberry.  It is a fight for survival and failure is not an option.

Full Disclosure - Adobe is my ex-employer.  I have never used Apple products even though I admire iPhone and Macs and I hope to buy my first iPhone later this year.