I’ve spent quite a lot of my life over the past couple of months writing about the Adobe-Apple spat. Frankly, I’m sick of the thing and wish the two companies would either get a room or have a punch-up in the car-park, before lolling around drunk and going “I’m, like, really sorry. You know you’re my best mate?”

Today, the row took a turn for the bizarre, with Adobe posting an open letter from founders Chuck Geschke and John Warnock. In it, they argue for open markets (which is fine), against closed systems (also fine), and rattle on about how in open markets, the best products win in the end (again, fine).

Where the entire thing gets smacked in the face in surprised fashion, like a foot suddenly flipping an infinite number of rakes towards the foot’s owner’s head, is when Flash enters the equation. Adobe again argues that Flash is an ‘open’ technology, and that in ‘banning’ it from its devices Apple has “taken a step that could undermine this next chapter of the web—the chapter in which mobile devices outnumber computers, any individual can be a publisher, and content is accessed anywhere and at any time”.

This is total and utter bullshit and makes me extremely angry. First, Flash is proprietary technology. Adobe can bleat all its wants about publishing specifications, but the fact remains Flash is Adobe’s toy. It’s pissed off with Apple because Apple is saying Adobe’s toy isn’t good enough, and people listen to what Apple says, not least when it’s related to the newest and shiniest Apple product.

Secondly, Apple is hardly going to “undermine” the next chapter of the web when it’s a supporter of truly open web standards, such as HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript, which are supported well by Apple’s various versions of Safari. Safari, remember, is available on all of Apple’s mobile devices.

Throughout this spat, I’ve felt sympathy for developers. It sucks that they can no longer package an app in Flash and send it to the App Store (even though such apps are effectively Flash apps and not ‘proper’ iPhone apps). I also think it’s a shame for the publishing industry that Apple’s entirely banned Flash from its platform, because many of the most interesting publishing innovations of late use Flash. However, to argue that Apple is undermining the next chapter of the web due to its stance is absolute hogwash, and I certainly expected better of Geschke and Warnock.