On Monday, AppleInsider brought the story that Apple is using SproutCore to build web applications. SproutCore is an open source, platform-independent, Cocoa-inspired JavaScript framework for creating web applications that look and feel like Desktop applications, according to the public schedule for WWDC.

While I was searching the web to know more about SproutCore, I stumbled across a blog entry by Larry Dignan of February the 20th. In his post, Dignan quotes the Wall Street Journal for reporting Adobe is annoyed by Apple not supporting Flash on the iPhone.

Dignan noted the spat could be resolved by the end of February and that he would be shocked if it didn’t work out between Apple and Adobe. The reason: according to Dignan, Adobe CS3 drives Mac sales and vice versa. Especially the last sentence drove a shiver through my spine. Adobe CS3 drives Mac sales?

Adobe Loves PCs

Since a couple of years now Adobe seems to be doing everything it can to deliver more functionality to PC users than it does to Mac users. We saw this happening with Acrobat Pro 8; we are seeing this with the upcoming version of Photoshop. Adobe hasn’t even bothered to make its products 100% Leopard-compatible.

Dignan could be right that Adobe has been driving Mac sales for a good number of years, but certainly that has been much less with Creative Suite 3. Apple and the Mac aren’t Adobe’s primary concern anymore. It’s therefore hard to see why Adobe should be annoyed by Apple using no Flash on the iPhone, and no Flash for MobileMe and whatever other online services Apple may be preparing to release.

In another article by Matt Asay, Apple is said to be using SproutCore because of the Flash spat with Adobe. Apple never comments on these hear-say stories, so what I’m about to write cuts about as much wood as the story by Asay himself, but my view of Apple using SproutCore is slightly different.

SproutCore is not a Flash replacement as far as I can see it. It’s a Javascript framework, which Flash is not. SproutCore is more or less comparable to AJAX, and I should imagine that’s exactly what Apple needs for its online applications to have them behave as their desktop equivalents. I therefore don’t believe Apple is trying to annoy Adobe. It is simply selecting the best technology currently available to create that desktop application experience on the web.

To put it bluntly: Apple is using the newest technology to create the newest application services. Flash is old technology, and I don’t believe you can do with Flash what Apple has done with SproutCore.

But there’s another question you might ask --one that mr. Asay clearly hasn’t considered. It’s the possibility that Apple might want to buy SproutCore at some point in time. It might make sense to do so, and fit into the strategy of having the best palatable computing experience available to users ranging from individuals to small workgroups. Apple owning such an open source technology wouldn’t even have to imply only Apple can use it.

After all, the company has shown it is perfectly capable of managing open source software and developing a system that in its current version is one of only a handful to merit the Open Brand UNIX 03 registration.