[...]Adobe on iPhone: Will Apple allow it? | Bits And Buzz, by @JeremyChone[...]…

The telcos.

That’s what makes the iphone not a computer, instead a phone or network appliance, with Terms of Service which restrict peoples’ use of the device, and most importantly: Don’t mess with our telephony features! (that’s you, Google Voice, we’re talking about *you*.).

I don’t agree with this TBH, but that’s how it is. Without Adobe installing the same restrictions on their SDK that apple do, apple won’t be in a position to approve it.

Pwnage tool 4 real people.

Btw, I use Linux on my servers, Windows on my laptop, Android/HTC Magic for my phone, and I have even an iPod. So, I am not a fanatic user one way or another, and I usually like to use the best solution for each usage. For me, the best product is not always the best solution, the ecosystem around a product is often as important if not more.

Anyway, thanks a lot for reading and sharing your point of view on this article.

It is just that this reads like a rant in places and is in no way an objective piece of much worth. Some of the points are well made, but you need to think about how your own beliefs come out when you write. Are you trying to spread rhetoric or have something interesting for people to read. I suspect you want the later but are delivering the former.

Nowadays, any company have couple open source projects and prefix others with “open.” Even Microsoft and Oracle do open source. And yes, WebKit is a great Apple’s contribution to the communty.

But in fact, I even have nothing against proprietary software. I am not saying that they should do more or less open source. I am just against the precedent they are setting in the mobile industry.

iPhone is the only platform where the OS Vendor solely choose what application can be distributed or not.

This is what I am against.

I do not want to have to go through an iMicrosoftStore to publish my Windows application, an iGoogleStore to publish a Web Site, an iAndroidStore to publish a mobile application.

Software stores can be good, can be controlled, but they should be optional, not required.

Interesting view about Apple forcing Adobe to got through XCode, but in this case, the developer will have to be on Mac, right?

I could definitely see Apple forcing Adobe to make a change that they must go through XCode, but I think that would be a good thing. Adobe’s solution, currently, doesn’t provide ways to debug or a simulator. Forcing Adobe to go through XCode would actually help Adobe. I don’t see them shutting Adobe down, because it will hurt other successful developers not using XCode development.

“Apple is undeniably the most proprietary and closed technology company in the software industry. In fact, Apple makes companies like Microsoft and Adobe look like nonprofit open source organizations in comparison.”

Yes, they are controlling, but this paragraph comes across as pure hyperbole. What about Webkit? How about a visit to http://opensource.apple.com/? Not that they are a model for what could be, but come on…

For #1, my understanding is that Adobe Flash CS5 bypass Apple SDK. It generate directly iPhone bytecode.

For #2, I did not know about mono-code. Does it require a Mac?

I think that Apple wants iPhone developer to use Mac as much as possible. I think they do not really care if they use other SDK, as long as the last step to produce the App go through them.

The assumption is that Apple wants to recreate the same ecosystem that Windows has among its developers and users.

I agree, this assumption was not explained in the article.

1. You state that a downside to the Apple SDK is that it only runs on a mac. How exactly do you expect a developer using Flash CS5 to compile iPhone byte-code on a Windows machine? They can’t, they still need a mac to do it.

2. Novell just released MonoTouch which compiles C# mono-code to iPhone byte-code. Adobe isn’t the only one trying this approach and so far Apple has been mum on it. Any app made for the iPhone by any technology compiled into iPhone byte-code that wants to get on the iPhone (officially) has to go through Apple’s approval process and the developer will still need to have the $99 dev license to do that. The only alternative is the homebrew community with jailbroken iphones which is not a legit software distribution network.

I think you’re overestimating how much Apple truly cares about what language is used to write apps for the iPhone. What they really care about are the apps that are made and the functionality and security of those apps. Their business model isn’t broken because OMFGZ Adobe can now compile AS3 scripts to byte-code. The business model is apps sell iPhones, Objective C doesn’t sell iPhones.

In your entire article you’re alleging that Apple somehow makes money off of developers writing iPhone apps in Obj-C code yet you don’t put forward any facts or reasons why that is.