Adobe fires another shot in war with Apple

Adobe fired another salvo in its war with Apple over the refusal by the maker of the iPod, iPhone and iPad to allow Adobe Flash video software to run on the hot-selling devices.

Adobe placed advertisements on popular technology blogs such as TechCrunch and other sites and ran full-page ads in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post and other newspapers to make its case against Apple.

"We (heart) Apple," said the Adobe ads featuring a picture of a heart as in the celebrated "I love New York" slogan.

The web ads linked to the Adobe.com website where the company's co-founders published an open letter defending Flash, which is commonly used by developers to create online games and video.

No single company should "dictate what you can create, how you create it, or what you can experience on the web," Chuck Geschke and John Warnock said.

"As the founders of Adobe, we believe open markets are in the best interest of developers, content owners, and consumers," they said.

"We believe that consumers should be able to freely access their favourite content and applications, regardless of what computer they have, what browser they like, or what device suits their needs," they said. Adobe's media blitz comes exactly two weeks after Apple chief executive Steve Jobs published an extraordinary open letter of his own in which he said Flash is a flop on touchscreen gadgets such as the iPhone and iPad.