Microsoft and Adobe reported to be in anti-Apple talks
Acquisition mooted, but bringing Flash and Silverlight together would be tough
Published: 8 October, 2010
READ MORE: M&A | Microsoft | Adobe | iPhone | Flash | SilverLight
Microsoft is building almost Apple-like levels of anticipation around its official launch of Windows Phone 7 on Monday, though much of the chatter actually centers on Apple - and whether WP7 can really threaten the iPhone. Now the buzz has reached fever pitch with speculation that Microsoft might go beyond product launches to wrongfoot Apple, and team up with another vendor with a huge vested interest in weakening the iPhone maker, Adobe.
Shares in Adobe, which has a long running feud with Apple over mobile Flash, leapt on Thursday on reports that its CEO Shantanu Narayen had held secret talks with Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer, which could lead to a joint anti-Apple strategy or even an acquisition. The two men reportedly met for more than an hour at the Adobe headquarters in Silicon Valley to discuss how to fight Apple in the PC and mobile markets. The New York Times says acquisition was one of the options under discussion.
The companies may see this as a good time to hit out at Apple. On the one hand, the Mac giant has shown its first real signs of weakness in the smartphone market with well publicized problems with the iPhone 4 launch and Android closing the gap on IOS. Also, the threat of antitrust actions forced Apple to make concessions in its tight control of its software platform, notably allowing Flash onto the iPhone and iPad at last by opening the door to third party compilers.
On the other hand, both Microsoft and Adobe have revitalized products and strategies for the smartphone and emerging devices sectors, after years when Windows Mobile and Flash Lite were seen as compromise platforms. However, bringing those strategies together could be difficult. Microsoft's own Silverlight rich media and plug-in framework competes with Flash in many areas, and the Windows firm has made it the heart of its developer strategy for WP7.
Speaking at Avren Events' Next Generation Mobile Devices conference in London yesterday, Microsoft's WP7 consumer marketing manager Oded Ran was very definite that Silverlight, and the Xbox games development system, were the only ones for WP7, and there were no plans to support other frameworks such as the operator driven WAC (Wholesale Applications Community). This reflects the continuing PC world view that Microsoft has - it repeatedly says it aims to bring the huge PC developer base to bear on WP7, but says less about the mobile software industry. It also shows how it aims to have Apple-style control over the WP7 user experience - by imposing standard hardware chassis with minimum feature requirements, and by focusing on Silverlight.
Reportedly Microsoft was interested in acquiring Adobe several years ago but did not move because of antitrust fears. In the new devices world, where Microsoft has only about 7% OS market share, this might not be such an issue.
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