If the tea leaves are correct, Adobe may be suing Apple over their recent iPhone OS license change. I think this would be a really good thing for both companies, as well as innovation generally.
It is clear that Apple wants incredible control over the applications and media types that are used on devices using the iPhone OS. From their perspective, this is a way to make sure that the device “just works.” However, their choice is becoming costly…
- for companies, who for example, need to re-encode video for html5,
- developers, who will need to spend the time re-engineering applications for multiple platforms,
- and for users, who need to bend their wishes to fit inside these constraints and who ultimately will pay ($$) for the increased demands on companies and developers.
Yet, more important than being costly, I think what Apple is doing is surprisingly anti-competitive. Instead of building their platform on existing standards, they are using their market advantage to squeeze their developer/user-base into their wishes.
A lawsuit from Adobe might result in either an agreement or judgment that loosens some of this control–hopefully in a way that drives both companies to think about how they play together in a more innovative and cooperative way.
So, unless things change drastically between Apple and Adobe in the next few weeks, from what I’m hearing you can expect to see Adobe taking Apple to court over the issue. It’s not going to be pretty.