Apple blocking Flash-built apps because of multitasking?

Some pretty knowledgeable and insightful threads here, devoid of emotion (or nearly) and full of hard facts and insight.

These cross-compiling tools like Mono and Adobe CS5 have as their aim the locking-in of developers to their tools.

As happened on the desktop platform (hence Steve Jobs recently talking about history repeating, been there before etc), these multi-platform tool vendors effectively become power brokers if allowed to proliferate unchecked, and any efforts by any single platform to innovate and introduce new features may be stifled or ignored in favour of the least common denominator.

Remember how Photoshop stopped differentiating between the Wintel and Mac/PowerPC versions in the late nineties when Adobe decided that the MacOS market share was not worth their while in terms of developer input? Is this why Steve Jobs recently called Adobe "lazy", I wonder?

Well, if you don't remember, Apple Inc does, and is not going in that direction on this new platform, or ever again.

No, it has nothing to do with multitasking or even iPhone OS 4.0 if you ask me. You're making something pretty simple unnecessarily complex.

It's exactly what the section in the TOS says. No stacking of platforms, just the Cocoa APIs. Real code.

The comparisons between Microsoft and Apple always amuse me. Until Microsoft makes their own computer or their own cell phone there is NO comparison. Apple makes their own software and hardware so can dictate what goes on it. The same way game console makers can with their machines (restricting Linux installs for instance).

Adobe should leverage the jailbreak community to show Apple how much desire exists for Flash and to prove Flash can work without issues, unlike other mobile implementations.

In other words, release on Cydia.

Most of the conversation seems to be in an Apple vs. Adobe context. How about the effect this mean-spirited clause has on tools such as NImbleKit (a Javascript/Objective C bridge), or MonoTouch?

I cannot understand why people continue to compare this to the MS lawsuit! Theres a huge difference....Apple do not have anywhere near the dominance MS did, at the point they got sued MS had over 90% of of the market share. When you have that kind of dominance, and you force IE down people's throats, THEN you are looking at monopolistic practices. Consumers had very few viable alternatives to Windows OS at the time, so they were almost forced to use IE.

Apple have around 25% of the smartphone market share, and even less of the overall mobile phone share. In other words they don't have the stranglehold MS had on PCs. Developers have viable alternatives if they are dying to program in flash.

@Jordan

so, what's the difference between Apple controlling their platform, and Microsoft controlling their platform as far as antitrust and the like is concerned? Simple: Microsoft is a monopoly, Apple is not. Microsoft has a dominant position in the market with Windows, Apple does not have such a monopoly anywhere.

It's quite amusing watching you constantly whine on this website. I wonder what's the cause of that constant whining, personal problems?

Too much control is bad for users, that's just how it is.
I can blame apple though, it is something they made... They should be able to dictate what goes on in their products, the problem is that so many people uses them that makes it too much powerfull.
All companies try to have as much control as they can... Some companies know the limits? Does apple? I'm not sure... I love apple and their products but still they are a company.


If you like news not just on Apple but technology in general check my website. Mind Over Tech

How much control do one have as a "proper" apple user?

Is it possible to terminate a app at all time? On a nokia with symbian sometimes an app does not end and runs in the background making the device slow and you have to check it and end it manually Same goes for windows phones.

Any take on os 4?

/Fred

It's Apple's platform. They have the right to do whatever they want with it. I don't see why there is any conversation beside whether this is good or bad for the development community.