Apple is really mean to Adobe

8. Apple is really mean to Adobe

We get it: In tech "frenemies" engage in what the experts like to call "coopetition." But what happened between Apple and Adobe earlier this year made everyone who paid good money in the mid-'90s to use Adobe design software on not-so-great Macs a little sad.

Apple indulged an impulse to modify section 3.3.1 of the license for developing iOS programs to block a technology Adobe had just debuted to convert Flash-based applications into native iOS apps. Many of us know what it's like to be picked on by the cool kids, and this brought on some ugly middle school flashbacks.

Apple came to its senses and reversed the ban, but not before damage was done. Apple probably shed no tears at Adobe's whiplash in canceling its Flash-to-iPhone project, then reconstituting it in September, but the move also cast a cloud of uncertainty on Unity 3D, whose cross-platform development tools power more than 1,000 iOS applications.

But as we fantasized about but rarely saw in middle school, every bully gets his comeuppance, and Apple's rough behavior helped Google welcome developers into the Android mobile development fold.