09 Apr
Posted by Matt
in adobe, apple, cs5, flash, flex
I'm the first to admit I'm no fan of Apple.
Whilst I admire their marketing machine and ability to sell last year's technology to the masses, their technical innovation and sheer lack of co-operativity frustrates me.
PS Yes I know co-operativity is not a word, but it sounds good and you know what I mean ;)
I admit that the iPhone was a good piece of kit, however it lacked many of the standard features that have existed and been used heavily in phones for years - copy/paste, MMS (initially), multitasking (to be released in Summer 2010).
As everyone knows, iPhone/iPad apps can only be developed on the Mac platform. As a Windows developer this is frustrating, especially as there's no official way of running OS X in VMWare or some other virtualized environment. Comparatively, Android can be developed in Mac, Windows and Linux. Windows Mobile apps can only be implemented on a Windows platform, but at least you have the option of running a virtualized Windows install on a Mac if you so desire.
When I heard about Adobe's iPhone packager for CS5 I was very interested. Essentially you can create native iPhone apps from Flash CS5, getting around the problem where the iPhone/iPad doesn't (and probably never will) support the Flash player.
However, with the release of the iPhone SDK 4.0, Apple have added a clause effectively prohibiting this usage:
http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/08/apples-iphone-lockdown-apps-must-be-w...
I really hope that Adobe takes it upon themselves to do something about this. pretty much every Mac owner I know uses some part of the Adobe suite - be it Flash, Photoshop, Illustrator etc. If Adobe were to take Apple on at their own game and cease distribution of the suite for Mac, I really think that would drive a lot of people away from the Apple camp. Adobe would take a hit as well initially, but essentially they have a suite of applications that is now an industry standard and users would have to follow them to the Windows platform.
Come on Adobe, fight back!
Comments
I was always a little
I was always a little skeptical about the CS5 workaround. The power to block it has always been in Apple's arsenal and they've made it very clear they don't want Flash on the platform.
Whether you agree with that or not (and I have mixed feelings) it makes good business sense for Apple to leverage iPlatform development onto more Mac sales (they don't want Windows developers!). They also have to be very careful about opening up any flood gates of Flash apps into the app store... it'll drive some away from the native platform and relinquish some control to Adobe. And we all know, Apple loves control :)
What conflicts me most is that on one hand, I'd take open web standards over proprietary tech any day of the week. In that sense, I'd rather a future of HTML5 and not Flash for the web. And it concerns me a little that so many are coming to arms to defend what essentially, is NOT an open technology.
On the other hand, Flash/Flex would have made an excellent middleware platform for cross-device development, in this new mobile/slate era, whilst maintaining legacy support for old browsers (which HTML5 won't do).
I really hope things don't completely fall apart now. I also considered Adobe could pull all Mac support as a response. That would certainly hurt Apple but I don't think their own clients would be particuarly happy about it either. Adobe's got a long, entrenched history on the Mac platform... I'd say there are millions of designers out there using the Mac versions of Creative Suite... I can't see how they can simply pull the plug on all of them. Maybe CS5 can be the last version for Mac so they give everyone time to adapt?
I'd prefer to see Adobe lead the way with HTML5 development instead. Something I'm sure they're working on behind the scenes (and that will now no doubt have increased importance). I do think they're stalling the standard a little because they're not ready for it yet (and are so invested in their own alternative techs). They certainly have their own (perhaps more-subtle) set of business-savvy influences that aren't necessarily in the best interest of everyone else.
Don't get me wrong though, overall this was a very aggressive move by Apple and even as someone who loves their mobile devices and developes for them (in native XCode ;), I'm not sure I like it. It certainly overshadows and of the OS4 news and could have huge, far-reaching implications for the web over the next few years.
What'll Adobe do next? :)
My main beef with this is
My main beef with this is that there really isn't any technical or business reason for it except to be awkward, mainly towards Adobe, which of cause Steve now has a personal vendetta against for some childish reason. Apple still prejudicially control which apps make it through the app store approval process which means they can block apps that don't meet the standards. If an app does meet the standards (even if it's created via the CS5 app packager) then why on earth would Apple want to block it? It makes the user/consumer happy, it makes the developer happy, and it puts more money in Steve's pocket. The only reason to block such applications is because Steve's power hunger has got way out of control and he's taking his arrogance far beyond normal business sense.
Whilst 99% of iPhone/iPad users really won't care about this latest move, I think that Apple need to stop being so big headed about the situation. They may be on top now, but recent stats say that Android is almost ready to overtake iPhone in market penetration (can't find the source now, will dig it out later!).
The higher you go, the further you can fall. Apple's competition is climbing too, it won't take much to knock Apple down, especially if they're alienating not just their competition but their partners.
Hmmmmmm :)
Well I'm fairly sure that Steve, overseeing his multi-billion dollar empire and being accountable to share-holders, is making business decisions here. Not personal ones. Even if his personal grudges make them all the sweeter.
He'd probably disagree with your logic and as the industry stands, right now, so do I. For a start you are only comparing Android Phones vs iPhone and all this reaches much further than that. OS4, the iPad and the iTunes publishing platform are all huge factors in this too (and combined are far more important right now than Android, IMO).
John Gruber has summarised it better than anyone else I've seen. Even Steve Jobs himself is reported to have directed folk towards this post as an explanation of Apple's moves.
http://daringfireball.net/2010/04/why_apple_changed_section_331
A quote from that...
"So what Apple does not want is for some other company to establish a de facto standard software platform on top of Cocoa Touch. Not Adobe’s Flash. Not .NET (through MonoTouch). If that were to happen, there’s no lock-in advantage."
"Consider a world where some other company’s cross-platform toolkit proved wildly popular. Then Apple releases major new features to iPhone OS, and that other company’s toolkit is slow to adopt them. At that point, it’s the other company that controls when third-party apps can make use of these features."
I realise it's a naff thing to happen if you aren't invested in Apple. There's a lot of emotion flying around from the Flash and Windows/Android devs and their numbers dwarf the iPhone's. They obviously want easily transferable skills and not to *have* to buy-into the Apple platform. I *did* buy-in and I've followed the rules (like a good little Apple developer hehe) and invested my time in learning Obj-c. So I'm biased and willing to admit that. However, it's like John Gruber says...
"If you’re an iPhone developer and you are not following Apple’s advice, you’re going to get screwed eventually. If you are constitutionally opposed to developing for a platform where you’re expected to follow the advice of the platform vendor, the iPhone OS is not the platform for you. It never was. It never will be."
I'd add to that you could STILL get screwed even if you DO follow Apple's advice! But that's a risk you take and it's far less likely to happen.
You may well be right about the long-term. Apple's competition is growing and that's a good thing for everyone. They keep pushing the limits though and it takes a LOT to knock the top-dog/first one there down.
I love Google to bits but I personally don't see it happening with Android right now. There are some fantastic Android phones out there from HTC but their image is still geeky and I've always thought they shot themselves in the foot early on by making it so open. It's hard to compete with a more focused product line like the iDevices. All of which run on very consistent hardware. I mean, I could be using Android on a fridge in several years time! How can I develope for the masses if I don't know if they're going to be running my app on a phone, a slate, a fridge, a can of beans!? :) I have to consider if it's got wifi, what screen resolution it has, whether it has a keyboard or not... it's going right back to the days we left behind.
The most likely threat to Apple in my opinion is its arch old enemy: Microsoft. I'm liking the looks of Windows Phone 7 right now (probably because it's modeled so closely on the iPhone ecosystem). And if anyone has the clout to bring them down, it's Microsoft. They've got awesome dev tools too. And if Courier is any good too, then they're onto a double front against iPhone and iPad. However, they need to get that stuff out ASAP because a lot can happen in the next year.
I don't know why exactly but Google Chrome OS for netbooks and Android (being built with Java) just doesn't enthuse me as much as the competition.
Anyway, I've started up my own blog again... http://www.dominicmanley.com/public/blog/. I think you'll like the looks of it ;)