There was an Apple/Flash fight that started last spring. Apple made an announcement on Thursday that shocked most of the world. All of the heavy limits on tools developers are allowed to use on iPad and iPhone applications can be relaxed quite a bit here soon. Apple added an aftershock to its statement, stating that it would make its mysterious app approval guidelines public. Steve Job’s made the statement without really discussing Flash. Of course, the Flash app toolkit is within the app process at present. Adobe can thank Apple for sending its stock soaring on the news.
All about the feud between Apple and Flash
Apple made a list of approved languages that iPhone and iPad apps might be made on, which is why last April, the Apple-Flash player fight began. PC World reports that Apple’s policy excluded Adobe Flash CS5 Flash Packager for iPhone and iPad. Adobe CS5 was mostly used for the iPhone with the Flash Packager. It was intended to make Adobe’s Flash a cross-platform toolkit for the iPhone’s other successful platforms. Then there was Steve Jobs. He thought that was a terrible plan. That was before of course. All was better Thursday. Now developers can use Flash to build an app that runs on both Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android, while only having to publish it once.
Public gets to determine app approval process for Apple
Apple’s draconian app approval process has not only been modified, it’s being made public. The Apple App Store Review Guidelines used to be secret rules that decided on whether or not the iPhone or iPad would allow the developer’s app to be used. iPhone and iPad apps used to have lots of “fart apps,” or junk applications. This was as the Apple App store authorization wasn’t letting in lots of top flight development talent. Developers had no idea if they had done something wrong in an app until they were given a rejection from Apple, until Thursday. Thousands of dollars used to make the app and months of time were wasted. Developers just want to know what the rules are, although what they’re does not really matter, says Wired.
The reason Apple changed
Apple will open app development to Adobe Flash and other third-party tools and make App Store Review Guidelines public — but the company didn’t say why. Philip Elmer-DeWitt at Fortune is just one of the bloggers that has made his own opinion on what happened. DeWitt says that most think it has to do with competition, regulation and developer feedback. Since Apple generally makes developers do whatever it wants, he didn’t think it’d be the option of feedback. Competition from Android-powered smartphones and a coming wave of Android tablets no doubt makes Apple feel confronted. The Apple/Flash feud has caused an investigation by the Federal Trade Commission on Apple. It is investigating the ban on cross-development platforms by Apple. Adobe has received precisely what it prepared from Apple.
Further reading
PC World
pcworld.com/article/205114/apple_lifts_app_store_approval_shroud_for_developers.html?tk=hp_new
Wired
wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/09/apple-lifts-app-store-flash-ban-publishes-app-review-rules/
Fortune
tech.fortune.cnn.com/2010/09/09/why-did-apple-lift-its-ban-on-flash/
