Adobe CTO bites the poisoned Apple

Adobe's CTO has jumped ship to Apple, the company he famously criticised over it's lack of drive in the field of Flash.

Publicly sparring with Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, Lynch believed Jobs' banning of the program on iPhones and iPads would cost the company customers.

But years on from the tiff, Lynch heads to Cupertino as Apple's new vice president for technology, reporting to senior vice president Bob Mansfield.

"I just think there's this negative campaigning going on, and, for whatever reason, Apple is really choosing to incite it, and condone it," Lynch told FastCo many moons ago.

"There's a decade of content out there that you just can't view on Apple's device, and I think that's not only hurtful to Adobe, but hurtful to everyone that created that content."

The guy literally goes on and on, awkward much?

Yet given Jobs once penned an essay saying exactly what he thought of flash, all bad, it's no wonder Lynch took umbrage. Still, makes for a cracking first day at the office.

But with a strong background in software, notably through his experience in building some of the early Macintosh applications, Lynch's expertise is common knowledge, yet with Mansfield's skills coming from hardware, are we missing something?

Probably not, these guys don't hire people by accident.

The appointment comes as no real surprise given CEO Tim Cook has made no secret of his desire to reshuffle the pack following the mapping disaster of late last year.

And with many analysts believing the company to be essentially a victim of it's own success, Apple's determination to stay at the forefront of innovation will be it's biggest motivator during it's recruitment process.

Lynch has been the figurehead of Adobe's push to transitioning its products to the cloud, something Apple are not well versed at. Could this move increase competition with Google and Microsoft? Probably, yes.

Leaving on March 22, Lynch's role at Adobe will remain untouched.

"We will not be replacing the CTO position; responsibility for technology development lies with our business unit heads under the leadership of Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen," Adobe said.

"Bryan Lamkin, who has recently returned to Adobe, will assume responsibilities for cross company research and technology initiatives as well as Corporate Development.

"We wish Kevin well in this new chapter of his career."

Yeah right.

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