Adobe, facing criticism from Apple, updates popular software suite

Last modified: April 13. 2010 6:24AM PST

SAN FRANCISCO — Adobe Systems Chief Executive Officer Shantanu Narayen released an overhaul of the company's most profitable product Monday, bolstering defenses against mounting criticism by Apple of his flagship Flash software.

Narayen announced a new version of Adobe's Creative Suite, five groupings of as many as 15 programs that rely on Flash to create Web video and make sites more interactive. His engineers spent 18 months updating the applications, which make up $1.7 billion, or about 60 percent of Adobe's sales.

Getting Creative Suite right is crucial as Apple CEO Steve Jobs faults Flash as “too slow” and bars it from his company's mobile devices. Apple's efforts to persuade programmers to adopt other ways to get video to work on Web sites threatens Flash's dominance and has left Adobe on the defensive.

“Adobe can't be complacent against someone as charismatic as Steve Jobs,” said Andrea “Andy” Cunningham, president of CXO Communication in Palo Alto, Calif., who helped create Apple's Macintosh public relations campaign in 1984. “They need to define Flash as the Kleenex of video media. The battle is theirs to lose, and if they do, it will be a real shame.”

Countering Apple's criticism of Flash — and by extension the Creative Suite programs that use it — may be a tall order for Adobe, the No. 1 maker of graphics software. The San Jose, Calif.-based company is fighting for the hearts of Web site developers, many of whom view Apple's iPhone, iPod Touch and newly released iPad tablet as platforms they can't ignore.

Apple's disdain for Flash has become more marked recently. Video and graphics created with Flash won't work on the iPad, a tablet-style computer that went on sale in April, or on the iPhone, Apple's smart phone introduced in 2007.

Last week, as Jobs showcased the latest version of the iPhone's operating system at Apple headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., he praised an emerging rival standard called HTML5. Part of his presentation included video promoting the Disney movie “Toy Story 3.” “All this video is HTML5, which is really easy to do,” he said.

During an Apple shareholder meeting in March 2008, Jobs called Flash “too slow to be useful” on mobile devices.

Adobe's Narayen said he is unconcerned by Apple's recommendation that video producers use HTML5. Adobe is adept at vying with companies such as Microsoft Corp., he said.

“This is not new for Adobe, in terms of competing against large companies that bring to bear different, competing tactics,” Narayen said last week in an interview. “We have competed with Microsoft in the past. We've competed with Apple in the past. As long as we've driven innovation, we've demonstrated we can be successful.”

Peaceful coexistence may prove Adobe's best defense, CXO's Cunningham said.

“Adobe should talk every day about the widespread use of Flash, because that's how you fight the battle against someone like Steve Jobs,” she said. “They have numbers on their side. And if there are any issues at all — about quality or security — they have to be on it to fix it. Because the minute there are cracks in their seam, Apple can jump in.”