Adobe's Side Of Things

 A little over a week ago Apple released a new draft of their iPhone developer program license which contained the following clause:

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).

Essentially, this has the effect of restricting applications built with a number of technologies, including Unity, Titanium, MonoTouch, and Flash CS5. While it appears that Apple may selectively enforce the terms, it is our belief that Apple will enforce those terms as they apply to content created with Flash CS5. Developers should be prepared for Apple to remove existing content and applications (100+ on the store today) created with Flash CS5 from the iTunes store.

We will still be shipping the ability to target the iPhone and iPad in Flash CS5. However, we are not currently planning any additional investments in that feature. 

This is a snapshot from Mike Chambers blog @ adobe http://www.mikechambers.com/blog/2010/04/20/on-adobe-flash-cs5-and-iphone-applications/

Every Argument Has Two Sides

 Mike Chambers makes very insightful and good points about the problems with closed environments.  I cannot agree with him any more with his point.

The primary goal of Flash has always been to enable cross browser, platform and device development. The cool web game that you build can easily be targeted and deployed to multiple platforms and devices. However, this is the exact opposite of what Apple wants. They want to tie developers down to their platform, and restrict their options to make it difficult for developers to target other platforms.

Closed environments are horrible for the developer.  It absolutely increases the difficulty and complexity to develop on any platform.  The reality is however, while the developer suffers, the user can gain tremendously.  Apple has always been a closed computing environment.  With the exception of brief period (during the Job-less years) Apple has always controlled (or tried to control) hardware , software and ultimately the user experience.

Why should we expect them to treat the iPhone any differently ? A controlled environment means controlled and expected results.   As Apple continues to push the iPhone OS on a multitude of their devices, they are effectively branding the UI as the defacto standard for all things "gadgets" , "cool" and "hip".

The last thing they want is for applications pushed on their platform built from frameworks outside of their controlled environment.  The problem is not with just the lack of potential quality ... it goes much deeper.  Forcing developers to learn, use and breathe Objecive C and Cocoa is a long term investment to direct programmers to produce viable products and solutions on Apple's current and future platforms.  If everyone could just learn Flash , press a button and produce an App on the iPhone what value does that bring to Apple's long term growth ?

The end user just wants their device to work...and work predictably.  Ultimately, they don't care how it's done.  If they press a button and expect a movie to play, it better play.  Whether that is delivered by Flash, Divx or HTML5 99% of the users out there don't care how it works.   

It's pretty safe to say that Apple will move on and survive without Flash on it's platform.  Adobe's absence on the iPhone just cost them a pretty penny on potential revenue.  Just ask the NHL how it feels not to be on ESPN.

Adobe can target Android, Windows 7 and other platforms but it remains to be seen how viable those other platforms will be with Apple's seemingly unstoppable dominance.