Mobile cross platform died with Apple and the iPhone
Yesterday Apple launched the 4.0 release of their operating system for for the iPhone.
A great update to the popular mobile phone enabling multitasking and other new features.
However, nobody seemed to notice the small, but significant change in the license agreement section 3.1.1.
Previously the line read:
3.3.1 — Applications may only use Documented APIs in the manner prescribed by Apple and must not use or call any private APIs.
The line now reads:
3.3.1 — 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).
So why the buzz.? Basically the one major reason mobile development is so tricky, is you have to create one unique application for almost each phone on the marked. So it is nothing like developing applications for the browser, where you can create one application and that will work in most browsers.
The mobile developers have to create a brand new application from scratch for almost every type of mobile phone out there. Both time consuming, expensive and just plain stupid.
And naturally software vendors around the globe started facilitating tools for developers that allows you to create one mobile application that will work on several mobile phones. A great initiative for everybody, both developers, clients, technology and world peace. 
However, Apple seems to disagree. With the new OS for the iPhone the conditions has changed. Apple insists that applications for the iPhone have to be specifically made to the Apple platform.
This will without a doubt result in furious 3.party software houses that overnight loses their entire business, and it is a serious breach in the ecosystem that binds the application community together.
But Apple must be thinking they can effort it. Cutting off the 3.party ecosystem, also means cutting off potential new clients and new projects. The Apple app store is overfilled with software, however only a few of the applications has actual value. One of the most downloaded apps from the app store is still the “flashlight” that turns your iPhone into a flashlight by lighting up the display. Hardly an application we can’t live without.
My point is, we are only in the beginning of the new mobile age, and Apple already thinks they own the thing. It is crucial for everybody in the business, to keep the ecosystem intact, despite the challenges and fight for marked shares. Maybe today apple has the most successful app store. But it is most unlikely that the rest of the industry will sit on their hand doing nothing about it.
What Apple thinks is a clever shortcut to maintaining their marked shares, can easily be a foolish short sighted act. You just can’t build a new ecosystem overnight, and burning your bridges once, causing the 3.party vendors tremendous pain, does not go unforgotten.
I sincerely hope Apple will change this section 3.1.1 back to the original conditions. It’s shortsighted, and it will haunt Apple forever forward.
Se alle indlæg fra Martin Eiler
April 13th, 2010 at 14:19
“Apple insists that applications for the iPhone have to be specifically made to the Apple platform.”
There is some business sense in this. If a portable platform comes along (for example with CS5 and thus Flash) this may actually become a intresting development platform at least for some developers. I won’t go into details of “Flash good or bad” but having a portable platform does result in applications which are written for this portable platform which by definition can only support a common subset of features. This in turn would result in Apple loosing it’s competitive edge (where’s the point if identical applications are available for Android, Symbian, iPhone)? It’s a _business_ decision and a valid one.
You wrote on portable platforms: ” A great initiative for everybody, both developers, clients, technology and world peace.”. I don’t concur.
It’s convenient for some developers. However on the bottom line it provides clients with less-than-optimal applications. It also impedes innovation.
Flash sucks in providing a decent cross platform experience even on today’s desktop systems (win, linux, mac). Why should it be “better” on the phones? Why should it be more stable? Less of a resource hog?
SJ: “cross-platform tools produce substandard applications” – which is IMHO true.
Please read on in Jean Lois Gassee’s “The Adobe Apple Flame War”
http://www.mondaynote.com/2010/04/11/the-adobe-apple-flame-war/
April 19th, 2010 at 04:48
There is no doubt about that there is a lot of really crappy flash applications out there. And i mean really crappy. And there is a lot of “young” flash developers with less or no programming skills at all.
However, this still does not change the fact that the cross platform paradigme is the most effecient in terms of time and money. The bottomline in all software development. Cross platform development is a must-have in modern system design and architure, regardless of flash or no flash. Somebody just has to provide a decent framework for developers to create appliactions that will fit the need for targeting the widest audience and reach in less time and less “pain”. All other arguments in this debate is just pure speculation. Marked-shares and profit. Will those big guys at Adobe and Apple never learn, that the best framework will win the war. It is the ecosystem that deside who to crown as king.
April 22nd, 2010 at 04:31
Both of you do have valid points, but I tend to somewhat disagree with you both – at least on the longer term.
Apple does seem to have the upperhand atm; the iPhone is not only state-of-the-art soft- and hardware, it also has the by far strongest brand in the smartphone industry and is regarded as the #1 gadget among the average young consumer – presumably closely followed by the iPad.
This is perhaps the reason why Apple (read: SJ) claims for absolute control over the entire eco system for “native applications” through mainly proprietary tools and frameworks and one single supply channel, the App Store, while at the same time encouraging the development of smart, “thick” web applications, using WebKit features: They feel very safe and comfy in the the sweet spot of cool consumer hyperbole – they’ve found their niche, so now they don’t *think* they need to comply to any standards they’re not in control of themselves. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?
However sure of their niche, Apple’s super-tight control over the development- and release-process of iPhone and iPad applications does have one major drawback: It’s lack of support for developing domain-specific, proprietary applications, *not* aimed at the average consumer but rather at certain specialized tasks and trades. It is hard to imagine serious investments in business- or science-software *stictly* made for a smartphone that still has (much) less than 25 % of the entire mobile market. Sure, I know the figure is higher when you look at smartphones only, but iPhone users are typically first movers, and the other manufacturers are all slowly but steadily growing their number of smartphone models that will eventually replace more and more of the simpler, “conventional” among average users.
Therefore it’s more than likely, that there will be a need for an open, standardized, probably Linux based mobile platform and ecosystem for both consumer and especially non-consumer applications other than the strictly controlled consumer-gadget iPhone and stronger/faster/more_secure than smart, mobile web-applications. Google Android *could* be this platform if Google finds the right combination of control and openness; Meego, started by Intel and Nokia could be another player or perhaps a mobile derivative of one of the greater Linux distributions, f.ex. Ubuntu.
Even if it ends up with several platforms; if they’re open and based on Linux, making applications cross platform should be a none-issue.
So I guess you are both right to a certain extend. Apple will (at least for some time) be a major player on the hip, consumer-aimed smartphone scene but their restrictive “business-decisions” will fence the iPhone off from some uses. Oh, and the price and restrictive bundles of the iPhone, at least for the moment, disqualifies it for a lot of people in Europe and even more in Asia. This holds a market open for other, alternative platforms; the competition and recent history taken into account, however, we’re bound to see more standardization and “open sourcing” on the platform market, manufacturers putting their main efforts into hardware, special OS-branding and -widgets and web-based services, f.ex. all-you-can-eat music and tv.
If Windows Mobile 7 will be a dark horse in this game only time can tell – I think not, but my guess is, that the market will be largely fragented, with both iPhone, Symbian and some StandardizedOpenSourcePlatforms, Symbian probably only for a shorter period. In other words: Apple will keep their niche while a general consolidation and standardization of a few alternative, different but often compatible platforms is happening.
But why is Apple *really* doing this? I’m convinced, their concern for the quality of iPhone and iPad apps is just half the story; they’re in for total control, firstly over their mobile platforms but secondly also over the entire Mac platform. Adobe is a long time supporter of not only the Mac OS but the whole Apple _idea_, also when things weren’t all honky dory and a move as bold as the one Apple has made towards them suggest that Apple doesn’t need Adobe and their software anymore – did someone say “PhotoShop killer”?
The Mac OS is a wonderful Unix derivative but it’s not the only and it’s a matter of taste if it’s the best and honestly, I’m quite disappointed with the current attitude of Apple and Jobbs; unless they somehow undo their latest moves and open a bit up, it’s quite likely that my current MBP will be my last and eventually replaced with a Linux loaded laptop with a vibrant, open ecosystem.
#K
April 28th, 2010 at 19:27
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