Apple Inc. and Adobe Systems Inc. used to be cozy partners, but they have become increasingly estranged since the computer maker unveiled its iPad tablet late last month.

While Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs announced that the iPad will revolutionize Web surfing, the device won't support Adobe's ubiquitous Flash video technology. In the wake of that disclosure, Adobe's share price has declined 3%.

The Flash announcement signaled a break from the mainstream since the Adobe video software is among the most widely used on the Web. The Flash player is installed on about 98% of Internet-connected computers, according to Adobe, and it is used for more than 75% of all videos on the Web and 90% of interactive advertisements.

But in an internal meeting late last month, Mr. Jobs told employees that Flash was "buggy" and blamed the majority of Mac computer crashes on problems with the plug-in software.

Adobe, meanwhile, has fought back with blog posts calling attention to Apple's omission of Flash and questioning how good a Web surfing experience the iPad will provide without it.

Adobe also says that it has developed a version of Flash that can run on the iPad. The only remaining hurdle is that "it requires Apple's cooperation to get on the device," says Kevin Lynch, Adobe's chief technology officer. "We're ready to go."

But Apple is instead throwing its weight behind an emerging rival to Flash.

The sparring over the iPad brings to a head simmering tensions between Apple and Adobe. While the two companies are longtime partners, with Adobe supplying publishing software to Apple's Macintosh computers, Apple has increasingly frozen out Adobe's video software.

Several years back, Apple said it wouldn't allow Flash on its iPhone. Mr. Jobs attributed that exclusion to Flash's inability to run efficiently on a device with less processing power than a PC. Adobe acknowledged the criticism and for more than a year said it was working to fix the problem.

Since then, Adobe has developed a version of Flash capable of running on smart phones, and every major manufacturer but Apple has embraced it.

Not being on the iPhone and iPad could cost Adobe some growth opportunities. And Adobe could be in trouble if customers abandon Flash for the Apple-backed standard, which is called HTML5. Adobe doesn't break out the revenue that comes from Flash, but it says the software is one of its most important assets.

Nonetheless, some analysts say Wall Street is blowing the issue out of proportion because there is no current financial hit to Adobe for not being on the iPad and the threat from HTML5 is a long way off.

"Wall Street seems to be getting confused by this," says Brent Thill, an analyst at UBS Securities.

When Apple introduced the iPad at an elaborate event last month, the absence of Flash was quickly apparent once media members had a chance to play with the device. Web sites that typically display Flash videos and interactive graphics instead had large holes on them. And iPad won't be able to play videos from sites like Hulu, the popular TV and movie site partly owned by News Corp., publisher of The Wall Street Journal.

Apple's bet is that Flash is an outdated technology and that Web browsers will eventually be able to play video without making such outside software necessary. Mr. Jobs said Apple will support Web sites that use the emerging HTML5 standard, which is being developed by a consortium that includes Apple and Google Inc.

But HTML5 is still being developed, and the technology isn't widely used, Web developers say. "We'll develop for the iPad when there's an install base that matters, and right now for our clients, there isn't one," says Steve Jackson, chief executive of Smashing Ideas Inc., which develops games and Web sites for Walt Disney Co. and Starbucks Corp. among others.

Mr. Jackson says that Flash is the standard for immersive Web design and that this won't change any time soon. To make sites and games available on the iPad, he says, he'll have to get his team to build a separate version specifically for the Apple device. While that's possible, he adds, it will take extra time and money.

Critics note that Apple's decision not to support Flash allows the company to keep control over application development for the iPad and iPhone within its App Store, at least for the moment. That's because developers can't build Web-based applications for its devices.

Historically, Apple has tended to stick to its guns. Ten years ago, it made the controversial decision to drop floppy discs from its iMac. The move was widely criticized at the time but later proved prescient.

Still, analysts say the decision not to support Flash is generating more controversy than Apple may have anticipated at a time when the company is trying to create excitement for a product that is supposed to showcase graphics and media.

"The problem is that you are asking the world to go rebuild everything on a technology that isn't really proven yet," says Scott Stanfield, CEO of Vertigo Software Inc., which developed the video Web site for the Olympics among other projects.

Mr. Stanfield says he'll buy an iPad as soon as it becomes available. But he doesn't believe it will be the Internet-surfing hit that Mr. Jobs has proclaimed. "You can't tout yourself as the world's best Web experience when you are walling off half of it [by excluding] technologies like Flash," he says.

T3 reports that Microsoft Senior Product Manager Mike Tedesco revealed during the Office for Mac 2011 preview event at Macworld that the company is "looking at" the possibility of bringing its Office productivity suite to Apple's iPad tablet device.
"Yeah, it's something that we're looking at," said Microsoft's Mike Tedesco, who is the Senior Product Manager for WindowsBU. "Obviously the announcement (of the iPad) is really fresh and there's nothing to announce or nothing that I can talk to you about today.

As the report notes, the release of an Office suite for the iPad would bring a significant credibility boost to the device, particularly in the eyes of business users with a critical need for such productivity software. For its part, Apple featured iPad versions of its iWork applications at the iPad media event last month, and will be offering Pages, Numbers, and Keynote for the iPad through the App Store at $9.99 per application.

Tedesco's comments come soon after Microsoft founder Bill Gates downplayed the significance of the iPad, noting that "there's nothing on the iPad I look at and say, 'Oh, I wish Microsoft had done it.'"