Erstellt am: 19. 4. 2010 - 17:19 Uhr

Apple vs. Developers

has Apple gone too far, or are they just doing the right thing for their business and their users?

The latest dust-up in the long standing feud between Apple and Adobe has taken software development and mobile computing platforms out of the basement and into the limelight. The success of the iPhone and the massive hype generated by every new product or system release has turned computing politics into front page news.

These are very interesting times indeed.

Burstup has already covered the basic information about Apple's changes to their developers agreement and what it means for Adobe, Flash developers and other third party tool-kits.

I'm not a programmer, so it would be useless for me to try to develop an opinion on the value of Objective C and the usefulness of things like Unity or MonoTouch.

I have, however been an Apple user for a very long time, and have been paying attention to (and a victim of) decisions made by both Apple and Adobe over the last couple of decades. This whole discussion is one big bag of deja vu. And that is why I think Apple is doing the right thing.

Context Baby

david Dempsey

The announcement was made just days before Adobe was set to release their CS5 software collection which would include tools for using Flash to develop apps for the iPhone. This, combined with Steve Jobs continuous assurance that the iPhone would never support Flash, and his comments that Adobe were lazy and doing bad development for the Mac platform, makes it appear as though the new language in the developers agreement was aimed squarely at Adobe. The fact that other cross-compilers would be taken out is just an (un?)happy coincidence. Many are actually predicting that the language of the agreement would actually exclude Monotouch and Unity3d since they are more pre-compilers and actually produce pure objective C code. One more reason to see it as a move against Adobe.

I don't know if that is the case, and the only one who does would never make a direct comment on it. I do think it is about Apple maintaining control of their systems and user experience. And I know that it is nothing new.

It's Ancient

When the iPhone was first released, the smartphone industry was fragmented and small. Windows Mobile devices were split across multiple versions of the operating system, Symbian was a certification nightmare and the only real way to get access to a large volume of devices was to do cross-platform development by releasing Midlets or J2ME apps. These apps could run and mildly clever and smart phones alike. The promise of being able to write once and release anywhere was a tempting prospect, and software and ringtone stores like Jamba and other late night advertisers were probably the first example of mainstream business models selling mobile applications to the masses. But those apps always had to play to the lowest common denominator, and installing a midlet on my brand new TyTn might have been easy and accessible, but it didn't get the most out of that expensive piece of electronics.

When the iPhone was first released, Jobs made it quite clear that there would never be Flash or Java apps on his phone.

David Dempsey

The current outcry from flash developers is almost exactly like the screams of annoyance on Java forums across the net in 2007-8.

It's also annoying, since the only people suggesting that Flash would be running on the iPhone were Adobe. One analyst has gone so far as to blame Adobe for trying to leverage it's user base in order to force Apple's hand. Considering the fact that Adobe could have spent the last couple of years actually releasing a fully functional Flash (no, not Flash Lite) on some of the other platforms out there, I think he might be on to something.

As a user, I want apps that are designed to take advantage of what my hardware has to offer. Anything that has to meet the requirements of the majority of phones out there can't possibly do that. Just because everyon's mother likes Robbie Williams doesn't mean I have to have him on my phone.

Stability, and more history

Steve might have been making his argument that sticking to the accepted SDK would not only help maintain a better user experience and increase the stability of iPhone software compared to apps developed using other tools. But he might also have had the idea of platform stability in the back of his head.

In the nineties, as Apple was at it's darkest hour, Adobe made a not so subtle shift in their development policies. Although Photoshop had gotten it's start on the Mac, and updates had traditionally been released on the Mac first, Adobe started to reverse that. More money and time was put into Windows development.

Things were at their worst when Apple was trying desperately to move over to a new OS.. In the end it took nearly 10 years for Adobe to release a version that had been ported to Apples preferred framework, Cocoa. CS 5 was to be the first version of Photoshop on the Mac that would be 64bit capable. Well behind the Windows version.

With the iPhone, system software and hardware updates take place on a yearly schedule. With the release of the iPad, Apple didn't just move into a new hardware format, they also released their first product with their own chip. Anyone who remembers the Mac Intel transition should be pretty amazed at how smoothly this little fact failed to play a role in any major announcements.

Apple maintaining a tight control over their development structures also allows them to maintain a degree of independence against any major software houses. With the number of Flash developers out there, if a significant number were to release through Adobe's tools, Apple could be ham-strung by a slower update process from Adobe. Something they probably don't want to ever go through again.

It's the Security Stupid

well, actually it's the liability. A lot of people moaning about this whole Adobe thing are also in the anti-appstore and open standards camp.

Apple has a plan for developers who want to use open standards. It's called a web-app. The webkit browser base is the open source project Safari is based on, and it also happens to be the base for a good portion of the other mobile browsers available on other systems. It is one of the reasons Apple is pushing HTML5, and making a web-app has the added advantage of being a good way of getting your work out across most mobile platforms.

The ones who want an alternative to the app store, well, you can always go Android. You can either shop in the official Android Market, which already had a share of Online Banking Phishing Apps get through the system, or you can really be brave and install through an independent Market. Just seeing the keylogger warning pop up while installing an app like that should be enough to make you very, very afraid.

Protectionism? Yes Please!

As a long time Mac user, who has jumped ship once or twice to break some Windows and play with Penguins, I have to say, I like it here best. Most of the time.

The one thing I know for sure, is that software that has been developed from the ground up for the Mac almost always provides me with a better over-all user experience. I also know that waiting around for other vendors to get their Mac selection up to speed (not just Adobe, can we say MS?) is very not cool.

I like software that gets the most out of my hardware.

In other words, I want Apple to keep as tight a grip on the App Store and iPhone development as possible. While I am not crazy about their content decisions, from a software side I like the idea that they are keeping tabs on what the software is actually doing once it has been installed. Considering the fact that our mobile phones are now direct pathways to our credit cards (through the iTunes store or Google Checkout) and our bank accounts (through the telephone carrier and premium message and telephone services) I really want to keep things tight on my phone.

Of course, one major advantage to having it go through Apple is liability. Because of the way they have structured their approval process, I would imagine the first successful malware to make it out would end up as a lawyers special holiday.

Und Jetzt?

Mobile computing has only just hit the mainstream. Apple might have gone and made the same mistake it made in the past, in which case Android should finally start seeing some apps that are worth buying.

If Apple was right (and has some selective application of their new rules in mind) then everything will work out okay in the end. I actually feel that Apple has done a fair job of balancing open standards with tight control so far (at least on the computers) and considering what Adobe does do my laptop, I really don't want them near my phone.