TECH CRUNCH: Developers and pundits can cry foul all they want about Apple’s lack of openness. But remember, companies are only open when it is convenient for them. The fight with Adobe has always been about making developers play by Apple’s rules. And right now they can make those rules because they have all the customers.In the desktop era, Windows had the most apps, which translated directly into sales. Today on mobile, the iPhone has the most apps and Jobs wants to keep it that way. Allowing Adobe or Microsoft to port apps developed for other devices to the iPhone devalues the iPhone, which is why Apple is cracking down so hard on Adobe. It is not about Flash, it is about developers. As John Gruber writes
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The App Store platform could turn into a long-term de facto standard platform. That’s how Microsoft became Microsoft. At a certain point developers wrote apps for Windows because so many users were on Windows and users bought Windows PCs because all the software was being written for Windows. That’s the sort of situation that creates a license to print money. MORE
WIRED: As Wired.com reported Thursday, Apple previewed its next-generation iPhone operating system and released a beta to developers, which included a new developer’s agreement stipulating that iPhone apps must be originally programmed using Apple-approved languages (such as Objective-C). Adobe’s reaction to the news on Thursday wasn’t substantive (”We are aware of the new SDK language and are looking into it”), but Lee Brimelow, Adobe’s Flash evangelist, had some more colorful words today. “Adobe and Apple has had a long relationship and each has helped the other get where they are today,” Brimelow wrote in his blog. “The fact that Apple would make such a hostile and despicable move like this clearly shows the difference between our two companies. All we want is to provide creative professionals an avenue to deploy their work to as many devices as possible. We are not looking to kill anything or anyone.” Brimelow ended his post with, “Go screw yourself Apple.” MORE