tl;dr at the bottom …

Background:

Adobe has made moves to allow Flash applications to compile to executable applications for desktop use through the AIR runtime. Adobe announced that Flash CS5 will allow flash applications to compile through AIR to iPhone applications. This would expose worlds of nice API and functionality and ease of deployment to the iPhone stores.

Then, Apple updates its Terms of Service in 4.0 to say that “Applications that link to Documented APIs through an intermediary translation or compatibility layer or tool are prohibited.” Essentially, this term bars Flash from compiling to the iPhone. This would also theoretically ban other systems like Unity3D and Ston3D from doing the same thing, but the current forecast is that those applications will likely be allowed through while Flash is being targeted.

Now, there has been debate as to why Flash has been banned. The most common response that I have heard is that Apple is afraid that allowing AIR on the phone will lead to the development of too many crappy applications. Steve Jobs himself said “Letting a third party layer of software come between the platform and the developer ultimately results in sub-standard apps and hinders the enhancement and progress of the platform.”

I have heard this interpreted as FLASH is the concern, not the developers that would use it. That FLASH would not be able to keep up with the standards of the platform and therefore result in applications that rely on libraries that may not take full advantage or performance of the system. Let’s address why this is wrong …

First, going through Steve’s arguments on the recently released post (AIR relevance at the bottom.)

We know from painful experience that letting a third party layer of software come between the platform and the developer ultimately results in sub-standard apps and hinders the enhancement and progress of the platform. If developers grow dependent on third party development libraries and tools, they can only take advantage of platform enhancements if and when the third party chooses to adopt the new features. We cannot be at the mercy of a third party deciding if and when they will make our enhancements available to our developers.

So why then is Unity3D likely being allowed through? Why can we trust Unity to keep up with the features of the platform and not Adobe? Ston3D as well? How about even further: What about audio libraries like FMOD? What if the iPhone comes out with 5.1 audio output through an optical cable? Why are we to trust that the FMOD library can keep up with this as well? By this logic, all of these platforms should be banned as well, and they won’t be.

This becomes even worse if the third party is supplying a cross platform development tool. The third party may not adopt enhancements from one platform unless they are available on all of their supported platforms. Hence developers only have access to the lowest common denominator set of features. Again, we cannot accept an outcome where developers are blocked from using our innovations and enhancements because they are not available on our competitor’s platforms.

Unity3D, Ston3D and FMOD all boast being cross-platform. Wii, Mac, Windows, Android, iPhone … all of them can be compiled to through these systems as well. Adobe is not the only player in this field. In AS3, in fact, Adobe actually has shown that it is willing to work with native systems through libraries like its NativeWindows (meaning application windows, not Microsoft windows) classes. They WILL add changes to the API that aren’t necessarily supported on all platforms. Multitouch too, for example, is clearly demonstrated here This is a functionality that will not be available on all platforms, and yet has API exposed for it, giving the developer the discretion to implement when needed. This argument should apply to all third party platforms, and it won’t.

Additionally, Ogre3D is on the iPhone. Ogre3D will NOT change its core components to meet a device standard. Are they going to ban Ogre3D?

Flash is a cross platform development tool. It is not Adobe’s goal to help developers write the best iPhone, iPod and iPad apps. It is their goal to help developers write cross platform apps. And Adobe has been painfully slow to adopt enhancements to Apple’s platforms. For example, although Mac OS X has been shipping for almost 10 years now, Adobe just adopted it fully (Cocoa) two weeks ago when they shipped CS5. Adobe was the last major third party developer to fully adopt Mac OS X.

This is a weak argument and is clearly just a jab at Adobe. AIR is not Flash. iPhone is not Mac OS X. There is no reason Adobe should not be trusted to keep up with standards anymore than any other company. I would argue that Adobe, with its power, can certainly be trusted more than any other third party layer.

What does this mean? Steve Jobs is not afraid of the quality of the third party layer. If he was concerned about the quality of the third party layer, he would stick to the ToS and ban FMOD, Ston3D, Unity3D, Ogre3D, and all other third party libraries from his system. What Steve Jobs is afraid of is the quality of the developer at the other end.

From a developer’s standpoint, Flash does such a good job lowering the barrier of entry to develop applications that now anyone can make an iPhone game. Sure, Unity3D makes it easy, gives developers a lot of tools to do things, but more often than not with access to Unity3D comes a sort of experience as a developer. Every new media lab across the country should be equipped with Adobe CS5, meaning any Sophomore in an Intro to Flash class can now try to sell his Brickles clone on the App Store. Steve Jobs doesn’t want THOSE sorts of sub-par apps on the store. That’s what everyone is saying. That’s what Apple is not..

Let’s call it what it is, please.

tl;dr: Steve Jobs is banning Adobe AIR from the App Store because he believes that AIR will make it too easy to make applications and therefore will result in an onslaught of low-quality applications.

Tags: Adobe AIR, App Store, apple, ipad, iphone, Steve Jobs

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 29th, 2010 at 1:56 pm and is filed under Lots of Pulp. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.