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Adobe's Apple tiff won't prevent HTML5 support

At Web 2.0 Expo, CTO Kevin Lynch pledges to build developer tools for HTML5 and gets in a few shots at Apple's policy regarding Flash on iPhone, iPad.

Tom Krazit Former Staff writer, CNET News
Tom Krazit writes about the ever-expanding world of Google, as the most prominent company on the Internet defends its search juggernaut while expanding into nearly anything it thinks possible. He has previously written about Apple, the traditional PC industry, and chip companies. E-mail Tom.
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Tom Krazit
2 min read

SAN FRANCISCO--Adobe won't forswear HTML5 technologies just because of its high-profile dispute with Apple over HTML5 and Flash, a key executive said Wednesday.

Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch
Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch Adobe

"We're going to try and make the best tools in the world for HTML5," said Kevin Lynch, Adobe's chief technology officer, here at the Web 2.0 Expo. Adobe has a history of HTML tool development with products like Dreamweaver, he said, and called HTML5 "a terrific step forward" for the Web.

That notwithstanding, while Adobe pledged last week to move on from its ongoing dispute with Apple over Flash on the iPhone and iPad, Lynch indulged the crowd with a few shots at Apple's development strategy. "I don't think it's the role of a company to decide what people should be making," he said, in answering questions posed by Brady Forrest of O'Reilly Media, the conference sponsor.

Lynch compared Apple's recent moves regarding Flash to the fight over railroad gauge standardization 150 years ago, arguing that when one company tries to carve out an exclusive space for itself, it hurts competition and consumers.

And while Apple CEO Steve Jobs said Adobe had yet to show them a mobile phone that ran Flash well, Lynch said "we've done a great job getting Flash on the iPhone. The technology issue is not that it doesn't work, it's that it does."

Adobe is showing off a prototype Android tablet running Flash 10.1 on the show floor, and Lynch said several devices will arrive over the rest of the year running the technology.