Adobe Vs Apple - Is this really necessary?

I started off my time with computers with BASIC programming. We never touched a computer in those days (I was on my 7th grade - 1991). I can still remember the one day I touched it for the first time for not for more than a few minutes. I was proud, I was able to use it way more than anybody else from my class (I was the computer teacher's pet student). But my true love and fascination of computers continued. I chose computer science over Biological Sciences after my High School Graduation and my target since that time had been computer sciences engineering. Till then I came across some lame computers in our school lab, nothing capable of doing what I had imagined.

By the time I joined my college, I had been a full-fledged geek who wanted to know in and out of what is done in the graphics industry. I was really fascinated by two movies which made this possible, 1. Terminator 2 - Judgement Day, 2. Jurassic Park. I was just amazed at the level of CGI that was created and wanted to be one of those guys. So when it was time to add computers to my skill portfolio, I gladly chose the one comprehensive course I thought would make me one of those guys. I started studying the Advanced Diploma in Multimedia in Arena Multimedia - Anna Nagar, from my second year in college.

This was the first place where I was conquered by Apple/Adobe. So, practically the first machine I academically or professionally worked with was a MAC system (those Apple G3s and later G4s were adorable) with Adobe's illustrious brand of software products, Illustrator, Photoshop, et-al. I also played around with Macromedia products & 3DS Max. I also worked with Flash in its infancy. The main deal is I became a major fan of Adobe products and MAC OS. Then something for apple dawned, Jobs left and Apple retracted very badly in the market. By 2000 when I finished my college, I became a Java developer @ AdventNet (now Zoho) and almost lost my way on the multimedia path. I used/using/will use my multimedia knowledge extensively for some of the GUI I have developed or helped develop over the past 10 years of my professional life.

Still the fascnination lingers in my mind. That's why I am pissed why Adobe and Apple are fighting pretty publicly nowadays. When Apple lost its way, Adobe retracted most of its products on MAC and has also failed to launch new initiatives on MAC. But the latest iPod, iPhone & iPad wave has actually catapulted Apple back to where it was decades before. Now, the people love the iDevices and have been pouring money on these devices. Not only for the device alone, but also for the service contracts they come with and most importantly the Applications via AppStore. This has now put Adobe in a tighter spot, they had once abandoned (maybe only a little) the platform, but now are in the verge of getting boycotted themselves. What an irony?

And they are thinking about desperate measures right now, like suing. This is way overdoing it. Reportedly, Adobe had been approached by Apple to continue offering Adobe's software products on MAC repeatedly and was given a bad rebuff every time. So, I believe Adobe has lost the diplomatic way to solve things souring with Apple. Even publicly claiming Apple is stifling Adobe's reach to iDevices is not working. Now, the suing part is a last-ditch effort. But I believe Apple has already made up its mind. Adobe cannot be on Apple anymore. No more a friend, not a foe. But definitely not needed in the plans of the future. Adobe thought it had lost a small market share when it lost developers using Adobe's software on MAC. But not it is not the developers or geeks they are about to miss, but the end-consumers, who are a TON when compared to developers.

Some believe this is a better move and will be good for the customers, platform and the developers in the long-run. But most believe this is just another straw in the whole haysack. Apple has always been a closed company, and will continue to be so. May be their closed nature might jeopardize their new found popularity among not but the niche ones, but overall all over the world.

The war is on, but whoever wins or loses doesn't matter in this story, but the common loss is for the developers and some consumers.