I've been an Apple user for more years than I care to remember. And, in pretty much equal parts a fan and a critic of the company. they've got a great brand, they make some truly fantastic products, and a great user experience. But it can be frustrating to be an Apple user sometimes – their customer service hasn't always been the best, and if you've got a hardware problem (admittedly fairly rare), they can often make it seem like it's your problem. In short, Apple can occasionally come across as a little arrogant. Not to mention the premium you pay for choosing Apple. Oops, sorry, just mentioned it.
So, a little bit of personal history. Pre Quark's dominance, I was an Aldus Pagemaker and Freehand user; then Quark, Illustrator & Photoshop, now it's pretty much InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop, (oh, and Acrobat of course. And Flash) – All Adobe products. And, although Adobe's products line (and user experience) on Windows is pretty much identical to that on a Mac these days, once upon a time, if you used Adobe products, chances were you were going to be using them on a Mac. I'm betting there's a lot of people out there with a similar background to me.
So it seems a bit odd (to me, as a user, and customer of both companies) that Apple has fallen out with Adobe over the inclusion of Flash compatibility, first on the iPhone, and now on the iPad. (And there's a shedload of information about their latest spat if you care to look for it).
But Adobe aren't the first company to have raised the ire of Apple (and let's face it, Steve Jobs. some of this stuff seems kind of personal!). I'm betting they won't be the last. They're just the latest (or is that Google) in a long line of companies that Apple has fallen out with… and not just fallen out with, actively fought with. Actually, now I come to think about it, it's not even the first time Apple have fallen out with Adobe… remember TrueType?
It seems Apple has always needed an enemy.
Initially it was IBM, Then Microsoft (Apple, and Apple users even alluded to them as "the evil empire"!), They've had run ins with Quark, the entire music industry, and more recently Nokia, Adobe and Google. And that's just off the top of my head.
Apple sometimes seems to define themselves almost as much as who they're NOT, who they're AGAINST, as who they ARE. Maybe they're right. After all, you can't argue with success, and Apple are nothing if not successful. Maybe when you've got vision as powerful as Mr Jobs seems to, and you're an industry maverick, your always going to butt heads with somebody. It just seems kind of negative. Almost childish.
Now Apple are a hugely successful company, they're no longer 'the little guy'… like they were in their battles with IBM and Microsoft. And (have you ever noticed I start far too many sentences with and? Must stop that.) everybody always loves the underdog. Apple aren't the underdog anymore, although companies such as Google and Adobe could hardly be considered small, there's not much 'spin' in a fair fight.
I'm just wondering, after the dust settles, and the furore over Flash on the iPad and IPhone dies down, who is Apple's next big enemy going to be?
Posted via email from CrocodileJock's Blog
