/Big Question/ Walled orchard
25/05/2010 | Filed under Discover > Big Question
What are your views on Apple’s decision to lock down development for iPhone OS, and ban third-party compilers?
Interactive media
Paul Dawson
EMC Consulting
This is a terrible decision by Apple. Even the largest of the brands that we work with, with the biggest resources, are struggling with one question: how can we develop an app that has the widest reach, with the lowest cost to produce and lowest overhead to maintain? The answer has been to develop in a single development language and then recompile to different platforms. Still a real headache, but better than the alternatives. Apple’s latest edict just makes their lives harder and more expensive, and ultimately will restrict the platforms into which they serve their content, apps and brand experiences.
Paul is experience director at EMC Consulting
B3ta guy
Rob Manuel
B3ta
People buy Apple computers to run Adobe software. Why on earth are these people fighting? They should be partners in delivering better hardware and software to do our business on. No good can come of this.
I feel like my mum and dad are fighting and I’m turning up the TV loud so I can’t hear the abuse.
Rob is co-founder of B3ta, a website that “celebrates the best stuff on the internet”
Media & PR expert
Tim Gibbon
Elemental Communications
It just goes to show that decisions and the balance of power lie in the hands of very few people. The world of technology isn’t any different. It’s a shame that the relationship has broken down in this way, especially considering the development time that Adobe invested up until this point (and the developers who have also invested their time in developing apps for this platform). As an iPhone user, I’m disappointed that the device won’t use Flash and find it really annoying that I’m unable to use applications right now. I’m not big on waiting, but given that the device probably is best served with a technology that could be better, I can wait a little.
I can understand Apple’s position in protecting its platform: it’s not the first business, and certainly won’t be the last, to do so. It’s disappointing, but at the same time there is also an air of anticipation because of the technologies that Apple will be creating for its platform and how they may unfold. How long the walled gardens last, how effective they are and how the relationships are in the future are anyone’s guess.
Tim is director of Elemental Communications
Software specialist
Simm Vips
Modera
This is a philosophical question. We are essentially talking about the competition and business interest of different organisations. One wants developers to be more dependent with their technologies so they have the freedom to create what the market and consumers find useful. On the other hand, it is also about standards that need to be applied. As we know HTML5 will have its own new standards available for video, animation and other future solutions.
Many things in the industry will change due to because it is the nature of business technology. Google, Apple, Adobe and other organisations have to be prepared for this. From Apple’s perspective the decision is understandable due to the reason mention beforehand, but obviously it makes life of many other organisations and developers difficult. Although it’s the nature of business technology and we will all need to adapt to the evolving environments we don’t have to like it and it certainly could be managed a lot better.
Siim Vips is founder and CEO of Modera
Payments expert
Jon Prideaux
SecureTrading
It’s a lesson that hubristic companies seem to have to learn the hard way - in a battle between open and closed, open always wins.
Whilst it’s obvious why Apple wants to maintain control, it should be wary of alienating the development community that make the iPhone a success through developing apps, and companies like Adobe who provide compelling applications for the Mac.
Apple should allow third-party compilers, increasing their developer base and ultimately improving the variety and quality of applications available.
Jon Prideaux is deputy chief executive of SecureTrading
Business specialist
Dickie Armour
Fibranet Services Ltd
I’m gutted that Apple has decided to lock down development. The one big thing lacking on the iPhone is the ability to watch Flash video and with more and more bloggers uploading video, this is really annoying. Every day I view blogs via my iPhone and so many have videos I can’t watch. Instead I just get a blue cube to tease me!
I’m a huge fan of the iPhone but I think this decision could backfire on Apple as the iPhone is no longer the only player in the market. It will be interesting to see if Adobe takes any action.
Dickie Armour is general manager of Fibranet
Hosting guru
Dominic Monkhouse
PEER 1
If you were Apple, why would you let Adobe come to your party? The iPhone has no Flash and this hasn’t stopped sales. So sod Adobe! Keep control of the development stack and force Adobe to stay out in the cold. Fast-running apps have been the reason the iPhone has been a success. I’m delighted that will continue.
Dominic Monkhouse is UK MD at PEER 1
Ecommerce expert
Ben Dyer
Actinic
My views are simple: I will never buy another Apple product until there is a core change in philosophy.
Apple, let us not forget, was the company that coined the slogan ‘Think different’. Now, far from thinking differently, it’s behaving like all its preceding monopolists. Now it’s at the top of the pile, its attitude is ‘Do it our way, or screw you, buddy’.
I’d love someone at Apple to try and justify to me why it feels the need to lock down the compilation process for iPhone OS. The lame argument about owning the environment doesn’t wash. It’s all about protectionism. It’s bad for consumers and it’s bad for developers.
Apple has got to be careful. It’s flying high, with a total company value of $241billion. However, it’s built on a consumer model and away from the traditional base of developers and innovators. Sure, where the money is, the talent will follow, but there is some stiff competition and a lot of very disgruntled developers.
Way back, IBM and Microsoft made this same mistake. Too bad that Apple is going the same way.
Ben Dyer is director of product development at Actinic
Hosting specialist
Neil Barton
Hostway, UK
This is a clear sign that Apple is not going to buddy up to Adobe any time in the near future. It’s also further evidence of two different development philosophies emerging in the smartphone market. On one side there is Google, championing complete openness through its Android platform, and then there are Apple and Microsoft, both of which are now being more prescriptive to developers in order to have more tightly controlled application development.
The question is, will Apple create a better user experience by locking down development or will such an approach be to the detriment of its users? There is always the risk that by being overly restrictive, Apple will limit its developer pool, which could limit future innovation. On the other hand, by ensuring that iPhone developers are authorised and properly vetted, Apple may be more confident that the quality of those applications will more accurately reflect the brand’s high standards in user experience.
Neil is the director of Hostway UK
Marketing expert
David Donnan
MSG
Apple has carved itself a very strong community of developers. But with the success of the Android platform and the reinvention of Windows Mobile, the quality of applications has been under threat.
Cleverly, by locking down development, Apple has encouraged better application quality. And with developers having to completely rewrite the applications for all other platforms, the iPhone will have more unique applications, with developers becoming loyal to the platform.
This is a huge snub to Adobe and sends a very clear message, which will definitely have an impact on the amount of people choosing to initially develop in Flash.
What’s equally interesting is the rumour that Apple might be about to buy chip designer ARM. If this turns out to be true, and Apple starts to exercise the same level of control over its processors as it currently does with its licensing and development, then the whole smartphone market will be turned on its head.
David Donnan is MD of MSG
Hosting expert
Andrew Saunders
Zen Internet
Apple has a dominant market share with the iPhone and classically this is the kind of decision market leaders make to consolidate their position and exert even more influence. This could be the start of a major polarisation between the Apple and all the other smartphone manufacturers, similar to the Mac/PC divide. Personally I’m in favour of open standard support, believing it’s in the best interest of consumers, and think Apple’s decision not to support Flash is a bad one.
Andrew is head of product management & marketing
Ecommerce specialist
Nick Vincent
Neoworks.com
Apple continues to sacrifice openness and trust to play power games with its major competitors to the detriment of both its development community and its end-users. The Apple of 2010 has moved from being 1984’s iconic hammer thrower, breaking the mould of personal computing, to being the suited man with an earpiece who detains you at the door for carrying the wrong sort of hammer.
Nick Vincent is a senior ecommerce consultant
Creative expert
Mark Walls
Neoco
It’s an interesting time for Flash with the advent of HTML5-compatible browsers and the iPhone platform locking down development. After a long period of being the de facto tool used for video and sites that need that extra level of interaction, its real worth is being brought into question.
The decision by Apple not to allow Flash onto the iPhone hasn’t affected its growth. The beauty of the iPhone OS is the controlled environment. These controls help benefit the user through shared navigation techniques and usability, helping to keep apps simple and engaging for the wider audience.
Mark is co-founder and creative director at Neoco
Internet playboy
Drew Curtis
Fark
One of my favourite conversation bombs at parties is to lean into a serious-looking group and say “feminism is not compatible with multiculturalism, discuss”. Now at tech gatherings I can say the same thing about Apple and open architecture with the same results.
Drew is the owner of Fark.com
Creative guru
Adam Roberts
Crayon
On the surface, this decision seems really odd. A lot of the media coverage makes it look like another attack on Adobe’s Flash platform. It’s not just the Flash platform that’s affected by this change but all third-party compilers.
So is Apple trying to lock developers into its platform, or is it just protecting the performance of the OS by excluding interpretation layers?
On a mobile device, processing resources come at a premium. Any app that ’s having to run through an interpretation layer is not going to be as efficient as a native application. Just look at Rosetta on the Mac. While it does a good job of letting you run apps designed for the old PPC machines, those apps are sluggish when compared to native versions.
The consumer doesn’t care how an app was built; they only care that it runs fast and efficiently. Apple has always had the final say as to what apps get to run on the platform. This is one of the reasons the iPhone has been successful. Remember that most mobile platforms are closed systems, so this decision is nothing new.
Looking at the number of apps in the App Store, it can’t be that difficult for a developer to pick up Apple’s tools and start developing. So do we really need third-party compilers?
For me it would be more important that Apple become more transparent about why apps get rejected.
Adam Roberts is creative director of Crayon
Technical architect
Mark Rodseth
Fortune Cookie
Apple’s recent amendment to its developer agreement – which forces developers to write applications their way using their tools – has done three things. It’s isolated Apple even more from the wider technical community. It’s wasted the time and money of companies and people who have invested in building iPhone-compatible developer toolkits (and developers who have used them). And it’s diverted industry attention to other smartphone technologies.
There are a few victims of this controversial move worth paying tribute to.
Number one on the Apple’s shit list is Adobe, whose Flash technology (which allows media-rich applications to run within a web browser) has been ruthlessly evicted from the iPhone party. iPhone users have undoubtedly noticed the small, sad-looking blue Lego blocks where content is expected. And there are sad little blue blocks aplenty since it’s estimated that over 98 per cent of desktop browsers have Flash installed, creating a rich ecosystem of games, mini applications and multimedia stuff. In a desperate bid to sneak back into the hottest shindig in town, Adobe developed a toolkit enabling developers to create applications in Flash and export them to the iPhone – a process known as cross compilation. Enter Apple’s new developer agreement which, paraphrased, reads “If you want to come to my party and you aren’t prepared to dress up, behave and have fun exactly as we want, then you can sod off.”
There are a few other cross-compiler tools such as Novell’s Mono Touch, which enables developers to write iPhone Apps using Microsoft’s de facto development platform .NET and C#. Modern software development platforms take a lot of the pain away from unpleasant engineering tasks such as memory management and provide SDKs (software development kits) that facilitate rapid application development. For developers that weren’t around 30 years ago when C was in vogue or who grew up on a diet of Managed Code (Java, Visual Basic, C#), writing applications using Apple’s dictated languages (C, C++, Objective C) will require a good couple months of learning and a strong immune system when struggling with a new strain of bug.
This brings us to the last victim worth mentioning, the wider community of software developers, of which I am a long-standing member. Wanting to get a piece of the app action, I went down the Mono Touch route – being a Microsoft .NET Developer – and was pleased to be able to create apps using familiar technologies. Apple’s Steve Jobs says that allowing cross-compiler toolkits to exist potentially jeopardises the quality of iPhone apps. I wonder if Jobs has ever waded through the detritus currently clogging up the App Store?
Perhaps there is one final victim of this technology totalitarianism: Apple itself. Sure, the iPhone has revolutionised the smartphone industry and its competition has been playing catch-up over the past couple years. However, as General Custer may have commented on the eve of battle, “the natives seem restless”. Adobe has shrugged off Apple and is now focusing its smartphone toolkit on Google’s Android. Google is ploughing ahead with its browser-based application frameworks. Web browsers are starting to support HTML5 features, which provide more powerful application capabilities. Android handsets are gaining market share and Microsoft will soon hit the smartphone market with its sexed-up Windows 7 Phone.
The battle drums are sure beating loudly. Amidst the noise and rumblings, a lone man in blue jeans and black turtleneck cuts a defiant shape on top of ‘Jobs Hill’. While many developers watch from the sidelines and consider where best to invest their time and (creative) energy on smartphone platforms, I’ve picked my side already. It’s called Android and everyone’s invited.
Mark Rodseth is technical architect for Fortune Cookie
Project manager
Ané-Mari Peter
on-IDLE
This issue has set the blogosphere alight with pro and anti arguments almost running 50/50. Many are accusing Apple of becoming a monopoly, but this is simply untrue as the iPhone OS is not the only smartphone OS in a reasonably competitive smartphone market.
Developers have always been faced with using APIs and adapting code to platforms, browsers, OSes … And yes, it’s time consuming, costly and often quite frustrating. Can’t I just use the compiler and my app will run on any smartphone? Well, in an ideal world, yes. But, we’re not in an ideal world and although more than a little annoying, this is just the way development goes. You adapt to the platform, API, OS, etc, and follow its rules. Anyone who’s ever had to fiddle with transparent gifs on IE6 will understand the pain.
The iPhone OS is continuously evolving and as both user and developer I would prefer not to be at the mercy of third parties for updating their APIs, compilers, tools etc, before my device would be able to experience new features and efficiencies. It’s very tempting to say that it would be easier for everyone if Flash was allowed (but still currently isn’t as it simply eats too much juice which affects the hardware, ie battery life, in particular Flash video) and then everyone would develop Flash apps, which can be deployed to all smartphones. Now everyone is dependent on Adobe. Is this really a better scenario than having to roll up your sleeves and comply to the rules of the platform on which you hope your app will run, maximising the unique features and capabilities of that platform? Thought not.
What does get my back up is the way that Apple has gone about it. It was aware that the Flash CS5 feature of porting Flash files for iPhone/iPad was about to be launched. A little more warning to Adobe would have been the decent thing to do, saving them millions and not looking like the playground bully.
Ané-Mari is the co-founder of on-IDLE
Marketing guru
Benn Achilleas
Neoco
Adobe’s reaction is a very much a ‘toys out of the pram’ reaction. Yes, it’s understandable, but why they expected Apple to okay the CS5 development tool is beyond me. The iPhone and App Store is a billion dollar industry and Apple has it locked up. The release of Flash on the iPhone undermines 90 per cent of the App store. Then there is the consideration of apps developed in third-party software when Apple has a hard enough time moderating apps produced in its own SDK. With all of this in mind, what is Adobe going to do? “We recommend people get an Android,” said one senior spokesperson. This is unlikely to bother Apple in the slightest.
Everyone knows someone that owns an iPhone: it appears at every opportunity. Lets think about it for a moment: how many people promote their Android phone to you on a daily basis? This is one reason why Apple has rejected Adobe’s technology – because it can. Adobe isn’t down and out and may come back. AIR will appear on an iPhone near your in the future, but not until Apple has something else to lock people in.
Benn is co-founder and director at Neoco
PR guru
Nancy Prendergast
Tannissan Mae
Apple’s “walled garden” model has worked a charm so far, with the iPhone dominating the OS, handset and app markets with its integrated offering. The ban on third-party compilers shows that Apple hasn’t had a flicker of doubt about its integrated approach, even in the face of aggressive competition from rival operating systems like Google’s Android and Microsoft’s Windows Mobile 7, and handset makers such as the buzzy HTC. These competitors are beginning to look like serious threats to the iPhone, with Android in particular gobbling up market share. Apple’s commitment to its model sets the stage for a battle of philosophies between proprietary Apple and its more collaborative rivals.
Nancy is founder of PR company Tannissan Mae
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Comments
Tennyson / 25/05/2010 / 13:28 / http://www.sonicloop.net
There Are a number of reasons i like the what apple has done.
1. Developers actually get paid for making apps from their platform because Apple has structured has facilitated that. so when a developer has an idea to launch a product (app) he will be thinking of his bottom line that leads him straight to apples platform, no need to think about the business model just make it useful. Try getting paid for a blackberry, palm or Droid app.
2. As designers and developers we can become wild with ideas and features and the apple philosophy helps to reign us in to best standards. Think about UI design and how consistent most Iphone apps are. the arrow with the blue background and the single arrow. Its consistent within most applications to mean the same thing. Why is this important well, because you have standards. If you allow any joe blow that knows how to do a little summn in flash to start porting their apps over you lose quality of apps and the end users end up downloading more junk apps and hence become discouraged and the App market just got diluted and not as useful. There are so many more reasons.
Snouter Jones / 26/05/2010 / 01:12 / http://www.projectmodern.com
I think it's very telling that only weeks after Dreamweaver CS5 launches, Adobe slips out an HTML 5 extension. This tells me that Adobe is not on their game, which is what Apple is implying. Sure there is no set HTML 5 standard, but it is being used now and Adobe chose to launch their major suite without these forward thinking tools (perhaps protecting their Flash empire?).
I am, or was, a Flash developer, and after a couple of weeks with my iPad, I can honestly say, I don't miss the self-indulgence that is Flash. Oh, sure, the JWT website does not work on my iPad, but I don't go there for information anyhow. Maybe developers ruined Flash? For every legitimately good Flash application, we had to put up with a history of Skip Intro, poorly coded CPU hogging loops that heated my Macbook Pro to an uncomfortable level, heavy slow loading sites (prelaoders became their own art form), sites that did not respect the mouse wheel scroll, poor SEO performance, etc. I can see Flash sticking around as spice to the internet, it's still a great way to build small apps and infographics and stuff like that, but hopefully the era of the full Flash website is over.
Despite all I've said, I think it's a bad move by Apple, and they should have let the marketplace decide. As a consumer, I don't particularly like having artificial constraints placed on my hardware. I welcome the return to solid web fundamentals if that is the net effect of all this. The future web is less about some heavy and awesome Flash piece, and more about true information, sharing and connections.
Also, say what you will about Steve Jobs, but give him credit for putting his money where his mouth is. He's betting the company on his vision of mobile computing. Apple barely cares to make Macbooks, iMacs and Mac Pros at this point. Apple is all about the phone and pad now.
Aurora Designs / 26/05/2010 / 09:03 / http://aurora-designs.com
Ohh no please tell me this isn't happening, Apple Iphone is the poplar platform for freelance App developer such as myself can attract more people for that app and if they restrict the platform Im done lol.
They did say Think different on their slogan and now i think they've diverted from that thinking differently to thinking profitablely. Any how let us sit back and watch what happens?
Brill Creative / 27/05/2010 / 13:14 / http://www.brillcreative.co.uk
I think Apple have really shot themselves in the foot on this one. The potential out there to really make themselves more acceptable to the masses is huge. If they did allow third party compilers in then all sorts of people can develop and release stuff for free. This doesn' t mean the quality of an app can't still be monitored by Apple, it can. It's blatently a najor money making exercise on Apples' part.
