Will Apple live to regret the Adobe affair?

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But now that Apple is one of the corporate big fish – or if you prefer, now that it is very much “the man” – its unwillingness to compromise its approach is alienating increasingly formidable rivals, not to mention large parts of the press and public.

For the first time, people are looking at a company standing up to Apple is a plucky non-conformist trying to “stick it to the man”. Right or wrong, it's unfamiliar territory for Apple.

And in its new identity as “the man”, Jobs is proving as much a liability as an asset. Lest we forget, the Flash fiasco has only partially distracted the Apple head honcho from his ongoing campaign against Google, a company that Jobs feels has gone out of its way to target Apple's interests in the mobile space.

Indeed, Jobs' willingness to use his public profile to push Apple's agenda, and criticise those opposed to that agenda, has increasingly been uniting those enemies as Apple's own stature has grown.

Was anyone really surprised when Google rolled out the Android red carpet for Flash once Apple gave it the cold shoulder? Where Apple and Jobs are involved, the enemy of my enemy is very much a friend.

Few would disagree that Jobs is arrogant – though to be fair, who wouldn't be in his position? – but there's also a deep vein of hypocrisy running through much of the criticism that gets thrown Apple's way.

What size does a company have to be exactly for a committed belief in doing things differently – hardly a Bad Thing – to suddenly become an anti-competitive refusal to work with its rivals – obviously a Very Bad Thing?

And would Jobs be so forward in using the press to drive Apple's agenda if it wasn't effective? Could it be he's worked out that as the well-known figurehead of one of the most successful companies on the planet, the press may just write down what he says? Is it so wrong to use that to his, and Apple's, advantage?

Bad move?

In the end, will Apple live to regret how its behaviour towards Adobe has played out in the public eye? To be honest, probably not.

From a purely business point of view, Apple is clearly aligning its considerable weight behind a rival platform, whether it's HTML5 or a platform of its own making, as was suggested today. With that in mind, cutting support to its chief rival makes sense.

Is it fair to cast Apple as “the man”, the ruthless corporate villain who cares nothing for the man on the street? Of course not – the real world isn't that one-dimensional.

But Apple would do well to heed the warning signs. As Adobe has shown, its rivals have no problem playing the game that way if it means they get the chance to “stick it to the man”.

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