Have Apple crushed CS5 Flash to iPhone opportunity?
Interesting times for Apple. The company is ruling the roost with the iPhone and iPod. It’s just released it’s next “killer” piece of hardware the iPad and has just announced major new features in the iPhone 4.0 operating system due for release mid summer 2010.
From a consumers perspective, Apple is an astonishing and desirable brand. Their products look and behave sexy. The experience when you walk into your local Apple Store is one of “cool”, “friendly” and “helpful”. It’s a brand consumers want to be associated with and indeed feel strong emotional attachments to their products.
Here at Code, Apple is core to the business. Everyone in our creative and development teams work on Macs. The majority of staff here, own iPhones. For the development team, the Mac offers an “ultimate” working environment for our industry. In one space we can develop our Windows based ASP.NET solutions, in another on the same machine we can test within an Apple environment and or be working simultaneously with Apple dev kits i.e. Xcode.
However, for those wanting to build applications for their products, the same positive, friendly and helpful vibe is not immediately transparent.
We have been looking very closely into iPhone app development. We’ve sent developers on training courses and ran our own R&D projects. We’re excited to develop for the platform. I’ve been in professional development for nearly 15 years and for me it’s just another framework to learn and not particularly daunting. However, irrespective of the learning curve, understanding a new development platform and how to get the best out of it and integrate it within your business process can be a costly and time consuming exercise.
Which is why we got excited when Adobe announced that within the forthcoming release of CS5 Flash, there would be the ability to compile your Flash applications as iPhone apps. This was and still is brilliant news. It means we can draw upon our existing ActionScript 3 skills and build iPhone apps.
In addition, we also got excited when we investigated Appcelerator’s Titanium platform. This amazing piece of kit allows you to build native, cross platform desktop and mobile applications using your existing web technology skills i.e. Javascript. A quick review of the “Kitchen Sink” demo application blew us away with it’s easy to understand scripting and powerful features such as 2D and 3D transformations, which proved it was far more than a simple RSS builder platform. The platform also offers us a way to develop simultaneously for both iPhone and Android handsets, with iPad and Blackberry in the wings.
As well as these two platforms, we’ve also investigated MonoTouch which would allow us to use our C# .NET skills to develop iPhone apps, PhoneGap and Ansca’s Corona platform.
These platforms are extremely positive products which provide us with channels to make use of our existing skills and to get our creative ideas out on a wider number of devices and platforms.
This however hangs in the balance after Apple’s latest announcement of the terms and conditions associated with the next iteration of the iPhone OS. It appears that “coincidentally” at roughly the same time Adobe CS5 Flash is due to be released that a clause 3.3.1 in the terms and conditions states:
“Applications may only use Documented APIs in the manner prescribed by Apple and must not use or call any private APIs. Applications must be originally written in Objective-C, C, C++, or JavaScript as executed by the iPhone OS WebKit engine, and only code written in C, C++, and Objective-C may compile and directly link against the Documented APIs (e.g., Applications that link to Documented APIs through an intermediary translation or compatibility layer or tool are prohibited).”
This clause effectively prohibits apps written using current cross-compiler solutions being released. This would include Adobe’s Flash to iPhone compiler, Titanium and MonoTouch.
There are however a few key points to bear in mind here:
- At no point are Apple directly targeting Adobe. Indeed as I mentioned, this will affect other platforms.
- This is only a beta release and the T&Cs are subject to change
Ultimately however, this statement has caused a wave of aggravation amongst those wishing to build iPhone / iPad apps via different mechanisms.
It’s strange that Apple, who from a consumer’s perspective purvey this “helpful and friendly” persona seem to make life difficult or add unnecessary barriers to those wishing to develop on their platform. Especially for those wishing to get their creative ideas out on a wider number of platforms than just the iPhone.
This clause is not the only barrier to iPhone development. Famously there is still the on going non supportive stance of Apple with regards to Adobe’s Flash Player. Not supported on the iPhone, it’s also not supported on the iPad. There is also the red tape associated with becoming an iPhone developer and getting your apps even on to your iPhone for testing purposes is a unnecessary chore. Then there is the painstaking process of getting your app approved by Apple and released to the App Store. Opera themselves are in the middle of this. At the time of writing their Opera Lite browser for iPhone was still waiting approval response from Apple 16 days after the app was first submitted. (UPDATE – 13 April 2010 – Apple have now approved Opera Mini!)
Discussions around the office raise some points:
- A few indicated an interest in switching handsets from iPhone to Android.
- It’s seen as interesting that during Apple’s “lean” period before the iPod regenerated the company, that it was designers using Adobe products that contributed massively to their core user base. Are Apple forgetting their roots?
- “Is Apple the new Microsoft?”. If anything, Microsoft have made amazing steps to get developers on board and excited with their platforms. It’s stunning what you get from Microsoft for free.
They’ve embraced community, preview and take feedback from those that use their products and they’ve even embraced competing open source technology e.g. jQuery now being integral to the ASP.NET MVC platform. Messages from Microsoft seem to counter the messages coming from Apple.
To wrap up, I love Apple and its products. They’ve changed how I work and what I expect from my devices. All for the better. With my consumer hat on I’m there. However as someone wishing to break down the barriers to developing on their platforms, I’m finding recent actions whilst not surprising, are definitely not inspiring or confidence boosting. It will be interesting to see how developer backlash impacts upon the tight consumer marketing that Apple are so brilliant at, if indeed it will have.
~Ste
“It’s strange that Apple, who from a consumer’s perspective purvey this “helpful and friendly” persona seem to make life difficult or add unnecessary barriers to those wishing to develop on their platform.”
I think the way Apple sees it is that if you’re using one of these tools, you’re not really developing for their platform. You’re developing for someone else’s platform, which just happens to end up on iPhone. When they release new features, suddenly it’s up to someone else to make them available to developers using these other tools.
“I think the way Apple sees it is that if you’re using one of these tools, you’re not really developing for their platform. You’re developing for someone else’s platform”
ie. They want exclusivity. That’s not an argument, just greed. Like Microsoft saying that only PC software is allowed, no iTunes, no Firefox, etc. If MS did this, there would be howls.
p.s. Yes, Apple is forgetting their roots. As an Adobe-based graphic designer who has used Macs and Adobe products for something close to two decades, I am dismayed by their increasingly closed, bullying manner. It’s not developer/designer friendly. They are definitely the new Microsoft.
Hopefully, Appcelerator’s Titanium will be OK and compliant with this new clause http://developer.appcelerator.com/blog/2010/04/update-on-apple-sdk-4-0-and-tos.html
“It’s seen as interesting that during Apple’s “lean” period before the iPod regenerated the company, that it was designers using Adobe products that contributed massively to their core user base. Are Apple forgetting their roots?”
Is this the same Adobe (for that matter, Macromedia too) that, as of today, have only just built their CS suite with Cocoa, despite being asked to *11 years ago*? Apple are no better/no worse than Microsoft. Neither are Adobe. It’s business, not some idealogical crusade…
“If MS did this, there would be howls.”
And there *are* howls about Apple doing it.
As for Apple and Adobe. Adobe have shown little respect or interest for Mac users in years, their products are of poor quality compared to Windows versions and they are extremely slow to make changes. Why should Apple give anything back to a company who have treated Apple’s customers like 3rd class users?
There’s been so much chatter about this, but I think that Matt has the most accurate idea. Apple was not happy with so many software companies dragging their heels creating/re-writing true native applications for OSX. Customers were unhappy with the lack of performance with applications “translated” for OSX.
Yes, Apple wants a closed system as a business model – but that’s also because they can control quality as well as the cash. The two go hand in hand. Crappy software on a great machine ticks off customers who may go to another platform – particularly with hardware like phones.
Honestly, Adobe should have seen this coming just based on Apple’s history with iPod & iPhone. It was silly of them to develop this Flash-to-iPhone conversion without serious discussions with Apple first. Now, if Apple told them that would be a good path to pursue and then changed their TOC, then I could understand the anger from Adobe.
Adobe took a risk and it backfired.
Jim: “They want exclusivity. That’s not an argument, just greed.”
Not really, just an entirely-understandable (given the history) desire to be in control of the destiny of the iPhone platform.
Rewind to the transition between 68K and PowerPC. There were, as you’d imagine, a plethora of development tools for the Mac. Unfortunately, only one of them – Metrowerks CodeWarrior – supported PowerPC code, so just about every Mac dev moved to CodeWarrior.
CodeWarrior also happened to be a great development environment and a slick compiler. Only one problem: Every time Apple updated Mac OS, developers had to wait until Metrowerks updated Codewarrior, and there was usually a lag.
Apple, in short, was no longer in control of the development of its own OS cycle. No Codewarrior support, and a new feature was dead in the water.
Fast foward to now. Suppose, for a minute, that some significant proportion of iPhone apps start to be developed using CS. All of a sudden, when Apple updates its operating system, those apps will break – and they can’t be fixed until Adobe decides to update CS. Adobe suddenly has the power to dictate Apple’s OS release schedule, and that’s something that Apple, thanks to its earlier experience, is simply not going to allow.
This isn’t hypothetical: from what I hear, CS-generated apps can’t take advantage of multitasking in iPhone OS 4, and there’s no indication when (if) Adobe will support it. That’s a major feature of OS 4 which, instantly, Apple would be relying on Adobe to support. And if they didn’t, for either technical or business reasons, a big bunch of apps would fail when OS 4 is released.
From a user perspective, it’s not Adobe that would get the blame for that, or even in most cases the developer of the app: it’s Apple. “I installed a system update and it’s broken my games!”
I can understand the desire of the Flash community for this kind of functionality. But it’s not going to happen, and the best advice if you want to target the iPhone is “build apps in Objective C”.
Ste: “However as someone wishing to break down the barriers to developing on their platforms…”
What you see as “breaking down barriers to developing on their platform”, I see as “wanting to develop for the platform of my choice – Flash – and port to iPhone”. The platform you’re committed to is Flash, not iPhone.
There’s nothing wrong with that, of course – but I’d argue that it makes iPhone a secondary interest, rather than a primary one.
Even if Apple’s strategy is ‘just business’ (hostile business nonetheless, otherwise this 3.3.1 clause would not have been released 3 days before the release of CS5), it serves no purpose to confuse your own developer base.
Apple’s interest is going more and more towards the big players, and less towards small independent developers. Why else would Apple not even bother to release a clear statement about what will and will not be allowed? I as a developer would very much like to know if I should invest time and money in third party tools or focus entirely on objectiveC. That’s not too much to ask is it?
Do I really need an army of lawyers to decipher apple’s vague statements? Is that really fair to expect of small time independent developers who made the iPhone such a successful platform?
Henk: “as a developer would very much like to know if I should invest time and money in third party tools or focus entirely on objectiveC”
I think the answer to that is very, very clear: Focus entirely on Objective-C. I don’t see anything vague about that.
Nice article, but the grammatical singular to plural bits needs some work. “Apple are an astonishing” -> Apple “IS” an astonishing… “Apple are core to the business” -> Apple “IS” core to the business. “Are Apple the new Microsoft?” “IS” Apple the new Microsoft?. “I love Apple and it’s products” -> I love Apple and its products (no apostrophe).
“The majority of staff here, own iPhones” Sorry to hear that… Drooooooooid. :)
Meanwhile, having just seen the European pricing for CS5, I reckon it would probably be cheaper for the average Flash developer to take a course in Objective C than buy the new version :)
Opps. Thanks for the corrections :)
The experience when you walk into your local Apple Store is one of “snobbishly”, “haughty” and “sterile”.
Corrected!
Ian B: “There’s nothing wrong with that, of course – but I’d argue that it makes iPhone a secondary interest, rather than a primary one.”
Perhaps this is the point in contention… Should a single platform (device) be of primary interest to any freelance developer? I personaly don’t have the resources (temporal and probably mental) available to concentrate soley on Objective C. What if the whole iPx thing goes t over a? Zeitgiesty as Apple are (sorry IS) theirs is just another platform amongst several. What we need is a well supported cross platform runtime that… Oh…
With the iPx OS so widespread, there seems also to be a grey area developing (for the platform’s users, and now devs in general) between the internet and the app system. Games and toys aside, whole websites now appear to want/need to be consumed as services run as apps. Is this because iPx is still kind of novel? Isn’t this actually worse for the open ethos of the internet than Flash? To hopefully return to my point, you can only run them on a single vendors system. I guess larger players can afford to this, but a lot of them rely on freelance talent.
I do think the people that buy the motives supplied by Apple need a quiet stroll down an old mineshaft.
I agree.. it’s just business!
Let’s suppose tomorrow we will have available Google tablet for half of the price of the Apple iPad running Androdid…
No app store, no share with Apple for application, just 100% of the revenue for developers. You can use CS5 skills, you can have a different market audience that could grow as much as the Apple one because of the competitive price of the hardware…
But now we only have Apple doing these amazing things.. They took a decision strengthen by their temporary monopoly on that…
However they figured out as “not friendly” to developers, and this could have stay for a while in the future… That could make a difference in the long terms.. Or maybe not, maybe they will become the new Microsoft!
There is just another thought on why Apple added that clause: how manage the millions of Flash applications sent for approval to the app store? That would have definitely swamped their approval department.
What is incredible is that they did this just 3 days before the CS5 release…
That was not only bad for Adobe, but for developers who beta tested CS5 on the iphone, and for all developers with expectations.
Anyway, with or without CS5, Microsoft never blocked applications to be developed for Windows. That’s just a very dangerous position in my opinion.
Look forward to have a cheap Google tablet soon.
Emanuele