by Rene Ritchie
Saturday, Apr 10, 2010
As he’s been doing a lot lately, Apple CEO Steve Jobs replied to an email from a developer concerned about iPhone 4 SDK’s ban on using cross-compilers like Flash CS5 or MonoTouch to create apps.
After a brief exchange about Daring Fireball’s article on the matter, Greg Slepak wrote:
I still think it undermines Apple. You didn’t need this clause to get to where you are now with the iPhone’s market share, adding it just makes people lose respect for you and run for the hills, as a commenter to that article stated:
[...] I don’t think Apple has much to gain with 3.3.1, quite the opposite actually.
To which Jobs sent (not iPhone or iPad this time, but from his Mac):
We’ve been there before, and intermediate layers between the platform and the developer ultimately produces sub-standard apps and hinders the progress of the platform.
That users are picking sides is interesting. Adobe wants to control the creation and distribution tools (Flash CS5 and the Flash plugin). Apple wants to control the creation and distribution tools (Xcode and App Store). There’s a battle going on for the next generation of computing, with Google, Microsoft (who won the last one) and others deep in the mix and they all want desperately to win. Both are good or evil depending on how closely their goals mirror the individual’s in question. So, while picking sides is inevitable for some, it’s also part of each company’s strategy.
By Jim Dalrymple
APRIL 21, 2010, 9:48 PM PT
Adobe on Tuesday said it would abandon efforts to allow developers to create iPhone apps in Flash CS5 because Apple essentially banned developers from using the technology. However, Apple fired back on Wednesday, making its position perfectly clear.
“Someone has it backwards — it is HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, and H.264 (all supported by the iPhone and iPad) that are open and standard, while Adobe’s Flash is closed and proprietary,” Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller said in a statement.
Adobe’s Mike Chambers said while the feature will ship with CS5, the company is “not currently planning any additional investments in that feature.” Adobe is convinced that Apple will reject any apps created with its technology and believes any apps that have been accepted will be removed from the App Store.
Apple has said all along it didn’t believe Flash was a good mobile technology and resisted supporting it since the first iPhone was released.
As part of its promotion of the iPad, Apple has even gone so far as to promote Web sites that use HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript, showing users what can be done with open technologies.