Considering how poorly Adobe has treated non-Windows platforms for the past several years, I would accept "sheer spite" as an answer to why they're screwing over Adobe. The better question is why Apple would do this to all other developers as well.
I'm more interested in how Adobe is a competitor to Apple (in a Windows-vs-Mac way). Though there are a couple of areas that Apple and Adobe products compete, I would hardly say that it's in Apple's best interests to screw over Adobe. Do you think that the Apple faithful will be especially pleased if Adobe pulled all of their products from the Mac platform? I'm betting that it would tick off a fair amount of Apple users, who could direct their anger at Apple if they feel that Apple started the whole thing.
Do you think Adobe stockholders would be particularly pleased if they pulled all of their products from the Mac platform? They would be burned at the stake. Apple isn't afraid of that happening because it isn't going to.
I'm not saying that Adobe actually would pull their products from Macs, but I'm kind of surprised by the responses from the 'Mac faithful.' A good portion of Mac users rely on Adobe products for their livelihood, yet they rally behind Apple. I'm just wondering if they would actually change their tune if Photoshop was no longer available for the Mac, or would they just change careers so that they could stay on the platform.
> I'm more interested in how Adobe is a competitor to Apple (in a Windows-vs-Mac way).
In four words: "Developers, developers, developers, developers."
Adobe's Flash is a platform for writing applications. Apple's Cocoa is a platform for writing applications. If developers were to all switch to Flash overnight, Adobe would control the application market. If Adobe didn't feel like supporting multi-tasking, no application would support multi-tasking because the Flash runtime wouldn't support it. Apple would lose control of its destiny.
Make no mistake, Adobe and Apple are competitors, and I expect Apple to fight this one to the death. Why? I quote the old adage: "Why do rabbits run faster than foxes? Because the rabbit is running for his life, while the fox is only running for his supper."
Adobe has not bet the company on Flash, but Apple has bet the company on iPhone.
If Flash runtime won't support multitaksing on iPhone developers will use what supports multi-tasking, if given app needs it. Or they would write translation layer - and that's what Apple is most scared of - it would make iPhones "just another type of multi-touch mobile phone", and it would hit their profits a big time.
