Narayen tells Wall Street Journal that 'extraordinary attack' contains 'patently false' information and is a 'smokescreen'. And: does he use an iPhone?





Cascade. Photo by Chris Owens on Flickr. Some rights reserved

The chief executive of Adobe, Shantanu Narayen, has hit back at Apple's Steve Jobs and the article from earlier today in which Jobs dismissed Adobe's Flash as belonging to the past, not the future.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Narayen calls Jobs's article an "extraordinary attack".

A few highlights [with comments]

-Mr. Narayan talks about Adobe "certainly" shipping on Android's latest version. [CA: is that a full version of Flash Player? Or Flash Lite? And when?]

-The technology problems [with Flash] that Mr. Jobs mentions in his essay are "really a smokescreen," Mr. Narayan says. He says more than 100 applications that used Adobe's software were accepted in the App Store. [CA: 100 applications that used Flash might have gotten onto the store - but Apple has since decided that it doesn't want Flash-written apps. That's history now.]

-Speaking about Mr. Jobs's assertion that Adobe is the No. 1 cause of Mac crashes, Mr. Narayan says if Adobe crashes Apple, that actually has something "to do with the Apple operating system." [CA: probably right. However, who writes and compiles the version of Flash that runs on Mac OSX? PDF plugins don't crash.]

-Mr. Narayan calls accusations about Flash draining battery power "patently false." [CA: Mac users are invited to comment.]

-The Journal wants to know whether Mr. Narayan knows Steve Jobs. "I've met him on a number of occasions," he says. "We have different views of the world," Mr. Narayan says. "[Adobe's] view of the world is multi-platform."

-Does Mr. Narayan use an iPhone? "I have a Google Nexus One device," he says. And what about the iPad? "I think it's a good first-generation device. I think you're going to see just tremendous innovation in terms of tablets." Adobe is, in fact, working with "dozens" of tablet projects with other companies, he says. [CA: we would love to know what those tablet projects are, and who the companies are.]

Closing comments: Adobe's rebuttal isn't as detailed as one might have hoped for. The real question remains: if Apple isn't backing Flash on mobile, then who is? There's lots of talk from Adobe about mobile platforms that are going to support full Flash playback (rather than Flash Player Lite) - but little sign of it.

And Adobe does have form in the talking big, delivering small area. Here's a Bloomberg piece from January 2009:

"It's a hard technical challenge, and that's part of the reason Apple and Adobe are collaborating," [Adobe chief executive] Narayen said today in a Bloomberg Television interview from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. "The ball is in our court. The onus is on us to deliver."

That's some collaboration. Let's hope the work on the tablet projects with the other companies doesn't end up the same way.