Lots of interesting news this week in tech, briefly amongst those Twitter has acquired Tweetie and helped Rim with their Blackberry client. However this post concentrates on Adobe and Apple’s recent battle with web domination. I have selfish reasons why i wrote this post mainly because I started out in this business as a freelancer developing and creating with Adobe Flash/Flex.
Of course I’ve come a long way since then and embraced different technologies, but i still love Flash – a tool that has given me so much in my early days – Reminiscent of my early days, I’d just like to give back something in lieu of what’s happening.
Catch up with what’s happening:
- The Twitter Platform’s Inflection Point
- New iPhone Developer Agreement Bans the Use of Adobe’s Flash-to-iPhone Compiler
- Steve Jobs Has Just Gone Mad
- Is Twitter going to pull a bait and switch on developers?
- Apple Slaps Developers In The Face
I’d like to concentrate on the second and last links in the above lists, bear in mind these are people whom i have alot of respect for. In reference to what John Gruber said on his blog the other day prior to the release of the iPhone OS 4 SDK & iPhone Developer Program License Agreement.
3.3.1 — Applications may only use Documented APIs in the manner prescribed by Apple and must not use or call any private APIs.
and the new version:
3.3.1 — Applications may only use Documented APIs in the manner prescribed by Apple and must not use or call any private APIs. Applications must be originally written in Objective-C, C, C++, or JavaScript as executed by the iPhone OS WebKit engine, and only code written in C, C++, and Objective-C may compile and directly link against the Documented APIs (e.g., Applications that link to Documented APIs through an intermediary translation or compatibility layer or tool are prohibited).
Gruber goes on with an update which i found his perspective extremely interesting:
UPDATE: To be clear, I do not think that Apple is singling out Flash CS5. I do think, though, that Flash CS5’s cross-compiler epitomizes the sort of meta-frameworks Apple is not going to allow. Same goes for MonoTouch. What Apple doesn’t want — and as we see now, is not going to allow — is for anyone other than Apple to define the framework for native iPhone apps. What Apple is saying here is, if you’re going to write a native iPhone app, then you need to target our platform; if you want to do something else, then target the iPhone with an optimized web app. I.e., the iPhone OS supports two software platforms: Cocoa Touch and the web. Apple isn’t going to let anyone else build a meta-platform on top of Cocoa Touch. I think this comment at Hacker News from “raganwald” nails Apple’s perspective on this.
My reactions, and introducing the brave lone wolf, Lee Brimelow:
While i don’t disagree with John and the comments on Hacker News I will say that the Adobe and Apple are two companies that have worked side by side for a long while now and you wouldn’t expect underhanded moves like this – which to me are clear signs of Apple wanting to dominate and control the market. All at the cost of pursuing the demise of it’s allies..
I can’t help but sharing a golden nugget from Lee Brimelow’s reaction to what’s happening with the new iPhone 4.0 SDK:
Many of Adobe’s supporters have mentioned that we should discontinue the Creative Suite products on OS X as a form of retaliation. Again, this is something that Adobe would never consider in a million years. We are not looking to abuse our loyal users and make them pawns for the sake of trying to hurt another company. What is clear is that Apple most definitely would do that sort of thing as is evidenced by their recent behavior.
It’s certainly something to think about, and i agree with Brimelow here; Adobe would never consider that move in a zillion years and it’s plain to see who is the more powerful force, but does that give them the right to abuse other people’s loyalty?
Business is always cutthroat, there’s no doubt about that and I feel Adobe should have seen this coming especially after Flash wasn’t supported on the iPad. Nevertheless the show must go on..
I’d just like to thank Lee for his outright response and courageous stand, not every developer has the guts to come out in the open like that. I’ll definitely be purchasing Flash CS5 and putting it to good use in some of my applications in the future.
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