Yesterday saw Apple announce removal of the infamous restrictions on 3rd party development tools for iOS devices. Twitter lit up, the blogosphere jumped into gear and speculation began in earnest. So what’s this all about and what does it mean for Flash?
What Happened?
Back in April 2010, Apple chose to tighten regulations for 3rd party development tools, effectively rendering Adobe’s iPhone compiler useless. In his blog post Thoughts on Flash, Steve Jobs defended his position, listing a number of concerns.
If developers grow dependent on third party development libraries and tools, they can only take advantage of platform enhancements if and when the third party chooses to adopt the new features.
Yesterday’s press release from Apple marks a significant change in attitude.
In particular, we are relaxing all restrictions on the development tools used to create iOS apps, as long as the resulting apps do not download any code. This should give developers the flexibility they want, while preserving the security we need.
What Changed?
It’s not immediately obvious why this 180° from Apple has come about. It could be argued that it’s a direct response to market performance of Smartphones; Android’s growing popularity may well have been a factor, but Steve Jobs denies this, saying that figures have been exaggerated.
Whatever the motives behind the decision, Adobe are understandably positive.
We are encouraged to see Apple lifting its restrictions on its licensing terms, giving developers the freedom to choose what tools they use to develop applications for Apple devices.
What Does this all Mean?
Those of you who purchased Adobe Flash CS5 will be able to use the iPhone packager to deliver apps for iOS devices (iPhone, iPod touch and iPad). Adobe have also made clear that they will resume development of the iPhone packager for future releases.
What About Browsing?
Removal of these restrictions does not mean that Flash Player will be brought on board as part of Safari on iOS devices. Neither does it mean that Adobe AIR will be natively supported.
Your Turn
So what do you think? What does this mean for you as a Flash developer? Do you embrace the change, or resent it? What do you think this means for Flash and Apple? We’d love to hear your thoughts!
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By Ian Yates
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I will develop applications for both, android and iOS :D
Excellent.
Time registering for registering for apple developer program after reading this = less than 2 minutes :-)
Good news. I’m very happy ! It will open huge number of new applications.
ancak kendi reklamlarınızı yaparsınız başka işiniz yok zaten
bu ne demek merak ettim, yanlış yere mi yapıştırdın?
Apple can go suck a long one. After that sh***y move they pulled, rather, after that sh***y move Jobs pulled, just a day before CS5 went live, I lost what minimal respect I had left for them.
No longer interested in developing apps for them. Also will never buy an Apple product.
I can finally update my app which was on the app stores for some time!
I’ve tried developing a simple app on flash, but it just takes forever to compile the swf and check it out on my iPod. Development right now is painful :/
I think this is the perfect moment to think about making some tutorial for the iPhone Packager in Flash CS5 and maybe say something about the performance of the iPhone Packager from Adobe because I am not so impressed by the performance Adobe is giving us.
If anyone can point us to qn excellen app built with Flash, I’d be excited.
Can someone clarify mu question?
Is Mac still necessary to put my app in the iStore if I compile it with Flash CS5?
Well, it’s a confusing one. You can compile with Flash CS5 on any platform – the iPhone Packager is even available as a standalone technology via Adobe Labs.
To deploy your apps you will need to be a member of the iPhone Developer Program as each project will require an App ID and a Provisioning profile.
However, to develop with iOS SDK you must have an Intel-based Mac running Mac OS X Snow Leopard or later.
Tune in later today for more on building iOS apps with Flash – we’re posting a tut on this very subject..
That’s very confusing. I’ve got a PC and Flash CS5, so I can compile my code to .ipa. I’ve got iTunes on my PC so I can test my app on the iPhone. Then I can use iTunes Connect to submit the app to the App Store.
So why do i need a mac? Maybe I missed something?
Sorry, I wasn’t clear – I believe you should be good to go (let us know how you get on).
The iOS SDK is for Objective-C development which is primarily an OSX and iOS thing (check out Mark Hammonds’ Intro to iPhone SDK Development over on Mobiletuts+ for more information) so it certainly used to be the case that you needed a Mac.
There was discussion a while ago pointing out that even if it’s technically possible, the legal aspects may make it dodgy ground: “It would be a technical violation of the Apple SDK to [generate and sign an iPhone binary] on a Windows machine” Jason H. Fisher
As a web dev, I’ve come to dislike HTML and CSS, HTML for the narrow approach it takes, and CSS for it’s mind-boggling annoyances and limitations. This will offer me a new alternative to explore.
I Guess this will give more “Crap Content” on the App Store. I really hope Apple will put som tough demands on the new apps. Please don’t let App Store become a new Andriod Market.
It’ll be pretty tough and Apple have been quite clear that standards will be maintained. They even describe their own App Store Review Guidelines as a “formidable list” :)
I think about this more and more.
Voy a ser papa