Adobe, isn't this just a touch desperate?

Look I love Adobe as much as the next person ... maybe more if that next person isn't dependent on Photoshop on a daily basis ... but this latest attempt from Adobe to get the public behind the usage of Flash in an effort to pressure Apple to provide support sounds a little desperate.

http://mashable.com/2010/05/13/adobe-responds-flash/

It reads a little like begging and a little like sore losing. Adobe states that they have worked very hard to get Flash to be a standard across operating systems and browsers, so why should Apple come along and ruin their market share? Or as they put it, make things harder for developers?

I'm actually on team Adobe, but even I can see that this was a desperate attempt to draw sympathy from an audience that, quite frankly, is probably sick of paying a fortune for Adobe's long over-priced software.

The debate about 'free markets' doesn't really work for a company who, up until the past few years, has charged several thousand dollars for Flash and Photoshop software required to build this standard. It may be supported by default across most web browsers without cost, but it is still expensive for developers to work with this technology - especially now that Adobe releases a whole new suite every year, making it even more expensive for developers to keep up.

To build projects in Flash, one must own a copy of the software, but to write applications in HTML5 (Apple's 'replacement') simply requires learning the knowledge to write it ... no software required. It may be reinventing the wheel, but isn't HTML5 more 'free market' than a program which costs $1, 168 (aud) to purchase?

Now I'm no lawyer, but shouldn't there be a case against Apple for refusing to support a standard that's accepted across other digital technology? Isn't there an element of non-compete, forcing Adobe out of the market, or specifically targetting one piece of a competitors suite to take that competitor out of the overall game?

Wouldn't Adobe have been better off taking this to court, rather than trying to draw sympathy from a fickle audience who have already been given a way around a flash free future? Not to mention that Apple have given those developers who were paying a fortune for flash software the option, and means, to make money from their work.

Apple's choice to not support flash is annoying and not in the spirit of sharing, but would anyone ever have expected the bitter Steve Jobs to play nice with others? If Adobe wants to keep market share, they might need to do what Jobs has done ... bribe developers with the opportunity and means to make revenue for themselves.

After all ... why would Adobe's profits be more important to us than our own?