[Untitled1.cs]

Apple vs. Adobe - The Battle over 3.3.1

n113492765344092_7540.jpgBy now, I'm sure everyone has seen or at least heard of the language in the iPhone SDK 4.0 agreement that appears to make developing an iPhone or iPad application in anything other than XCode a violation of terms. This obviously has sparked much harsh debate over development in things other than Xcode. Several different platforms such as Titanium Developer, PhoneGap, and even the upcoming Flash CS5 will also have iPhone development built into it. Well, what could apple possibly be trying to do here? Shut down all development outside of XCode? Well, obviously they are. But to what end? That's what a lot of people are asking right now. When asked about it in a dialogue with Greg Slepak of the Tao Effect, Uncle Steve said that they inserted this clause into the developer agreement because:

"intermediate layers between the platform and the developer ultimately produces sub-standard apps and hinders the progress of the platform"

I'd like to ask this of Steve. What apps are you talking about? Show me one application built on something other than Xcode that "hinders the progress of the platform". If this is really the case, then apps like Firefox and Chrome hinder the progress of the Mac platform. Obviously they don't; rather they aid it in it's progress. And I'd also like to see one sub par iPhone app that has been accepted into the app store that was built in a different environment. Especially some of the ones built on Flash. I'd like to see some of those that can be proven by Apple to be "sub par". I don't think they can find one. Show me one Steve, and I might believe you. Otherwise, I'm definitely with Adobe. 
All for Now!
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Arthur Rosa is an engineering manager based in Sunnyvale, California.