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No one that follows tech-news can possibly have missed that Apple have whipped up a shitstorm of sorts with it’s changes in Section 3.3.1 of the iPhone Developer Program License Agreement resulting in the prohibition of the use of third-party tools for developing iPhone apps. This is what Section 3.3.1 used to look like:

3.3.1 — Applications may only use Documented APIs in the manner prescribed by Apple and must not use or call any private APIs.

And this is what Section 3.3.1 looks like now:

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).

Clearly this is a move that Apple has made in order to even further increase their control and hold over the development done for their mobile platform and shut out any and all apps that are not developed in a manner blessed by Apple. This includes 3D-games developed with Unity3D, all apps that could be built with Flash CS5 and many more.

As a developer I take great offense to this and I consider it to be a real dick-move by Apple. Further, I believe it to be a move that clearly demonstrates that the people making the decisions have completely lost any understanding of what it is to be a software developer and how we developers think and operate.

Some people seem to believe that it’s a good thing that all iPhone OS development is being streamlined into a single set of tools all under the control of the platform-owner (i.e. Apple). Anyone believing this doesn’t get it either and is clearly not a developer themselves. Let me explain.

Developers don’t like being told exactly how to operate and what roads to travel on when on the path to solving a problem or task. There’s always multiple solutions to any given software development issue. There is no such thing as the ultimate tool-set or the IDE to end all IDEs. This is why we like having the freedom to chose what tools to use and how to use them to build software. By putting restrictions on what tools are “allowed” for iPhone OS development Apple is pulling a move with multiple bad consequences.

Firstly, it pisses developers off. Like I said, we don’t like being told how to work and think. In fact, there’s no group of creative people that enjoy that. Can you imagine if MOMA said to all artists that if you want your art displayed in our facilities you have to buy all your supplies in a specific store and hold your brush/chisel/whatever in a specific way? Same thing here. And yes, I’m saying that software development in many ways is an artform. If I want to use a third-party set of tools or some other exotic methods not previously imagined by Apple in order to create an awesome iPhone-app I should be able to do that. If the way my brain works makes this, to me, the most natural path of development, why restrict me and forbid me to do it? It’s ludicrous and any real developer will tell you the same thing.

Sure, I can get behind the idea that Apple want to set up some rules for what apps are allowed into their AppStore (even if the AppStore acceptance process is utterly broken…). Telling developers what to build is sort of OK, but telling them how to build is definitely not OK. It’s bullshit, plain and simple.

Secondly, this dick-move of Apples is ruining business for the companies/people developing these third-party tools as well. Sure, Apple has no responsibility to ensure the business of any other company but this is none the less a really bad side-effect of the changes to Section 3.3.1. People may lose their jobs and companies may possibly go out of business thanks to a really moronic and completely unnecessary change in the iPhone Developer Program License Agreement

The main target here, however a company not very likely to go out of business, is obviously Adobe and their product Flash which currently dominates when it comes to video and other multimedia content on the web. The changes to Section 3.3.1 followed swiftly after Adobe announced that the next version of Adobe Creative Suite would include tools that enabled Flash-developers to build Flash-apps that would run on the iPhone and iPad. That means that developers could use CS5 to create apps that were truly multi-platform and with very little hassle. They wouldn’t have to maintain different simultaneous versions for multiple devices, just one version that they could then deploy on iPhone OS, Android or whatever OS they wanted. One version of the app but multiple markets for it to exist in, which consequently means more business for the developers and, once again, all without having to deal with the mess of having multiple versions of the code. Now imagine how happy that would’ve made all of the world’s Flash-developers! Naturally, Apple couldn’t have that.

So that’s the third reason Section 3.3.1 bites, it causes unnecessary problems for developers that don’t want their apps to be exclusive to the iPhone OS, and what developer really wants that? Even if Apple may have the goal that 100% of the smartphones of the world are iPhones, it is never going to be a reality. Naturally software developers want a shot at pushing their apps and consequently make money in more markets than one, and, if at all possible, with minimal hassle. Clearly that’s not something that Apple wants.

What Apple wants for all the apps running on the iPhone OS is for them to be exclusive for their platform. They don’t want multi-platform development anywhere near their products and this was made even more clear by the open letter from Steve Jobs entitled “Thoughts on Flash” that was published on Apples website a couple of days ago.

In his letter The Steve lists six reasons why Apple hates Flash and wants it to die rather than run on the iPhone OS. Some of these reasons are actually somewhat valid, however most of them are complete and utter hypocritical nonsense. Let’s run through them quickly:

Reason one: Adobe Flash is 100% proprietary and Apple is a supporter of the “open web” having created WebKit and pushing HTML5, CSS, JavaScript and other open standards.
Hello pot, calling the kettle black much? This just makes me laugh. Apple is one of the most proprietary companies in the tech-industry. Their levels of secrecy and unwillingness to give away so much as an ounce of their secret sauces is legendary. Just because you’ve successfully pushed one open source project it doesn’t make you Richard M. Stallman. Get off your high horse. Flash is a well publicized standard and going by your own standards that should be good enough for you. Also, when Apple is pushing the very proprietary video standard H.264 as hard as they are (continue reading and you’ll see that they absolutely love H.264) they really shouldn’t be yapping about who is or isn’t being “open”.

Reason two: Adobe’s claim that Apple’s devices can’t deliver “the full web” since they don’t run Flash is caca because plenty of big websites have video in H.264 now and as for Flash-games there are loads of games on AppStore you can play instead.
There is some truth to this but it is still not valid in my opinion. Just because a long list of Apple-approved sites deliver video in H.264 instead of or as well as Flash it doesn’t mean every website does. It will still cause frustration when you run into that site with that video you wanna watch just have Flash - which is currently the dominant way to show video on the web. As for the games argument, it’s just laughable and shows that Steve isn’t a gamer himself. It’s like this: if I wanna play my game, I wanna play my game NOT another game. So if my game doesn’t run on the iPad it is no consolation at all that there are loads of other quality games available. I still can’t play the game that I wanted to play.

Reason three: Flash has lots of security flaws and the number one reason Macs crash.
I have no idea if the first claim is true or not so I’m not gonna argue against it. I’ve never had any of my Macs crash because of Flash but I’m not gonna argue the second claim either since I have no way to know what the truth is here. If Apple have statistics, which I assume they have, saying this, then it probably is true.

Reason four: Flash eats twice the battery life that H.264 with hardware acceleration does.
Again, whether this is true or not I don’t know but even if it is true I don’t think it’s a valid reason for shutting Flash out. Let the users themselves decide what to spend the juice of their batteries on. What’s next? Blocking games that are CPU-intense and thus eat “too much” battery. It’s just ridiculous. If customers want Flash, and they obviously do, let them have it even if it eats the batteries of their iPads and iPhones. Let people make their own choices.

Reason five: Flash was designed for PCs using mice, not for touch screens using fingers. You can’t “hover” or “rollover” on a touch screen.
This is true, but it is still an invalid reason simply because the controls of an app are up to the developer. It has nothing to do with the technology itself. Don’t you think Flash-developers targeting the iPhone would’ve thought of not to use controls that require “hovering”? Enough said.

Reason six: Apple knows from experience that all software developed using third-party tools suck and are inferior to software developed specifically for a particular device and/or operating system. Relying on third-party tools is also always a bad thing because then you’ll have to wait for the tool-developers to include new OS-features in their product and that can take a long time.
This part of Steve’s letter is so full of stupidity and claims that are in no way backed up by hard facts it’s laughable. What “experience”? Where are the statistics or surveys to prove this? Nowhere is where they are because it’s bullshit, plain and simple. It’s just a vague claim made like it’s the truth just because The Steve said so. Also, I find it amazing that Steve Jobs has taken it upon himself to save developers from using “bad tools”. I’ve said it several times already but I’ll say it one final time: Developers want freedom and choices! Let us decide for ourselves what tools we use and how we use them! We can take responsibility ourselves for our choices. We don’t need Steve Jobs to make them for us. Let us code and develop any way we want. Period.

So in closing all of this is just another scheme of Apple’s to lock people to their platforms attempting to create a sense of exclusiveness for their products in the process. The very same things they’ve in the past scolded Microsoft for. But what differs from previous ploys of theirs is that this is a tremendously nasty move that really benefits nobody, not even Apple themselves in my opinion. I think it is really sad and I don’t like the way Apple has been developing since releasing the iPhone - I think that’s where it all started to go downhill. I love Apple’s products - the hardware, OS X, iLife, all of that good stuff - but the company policies are pissing me off more often than not these days. Steve and his underlings need to step back and take a good look at themselves, the company’s past and the path their currently marching onwards on before it’s too late and Apple really becomes the new Microsoft or IBM. Nobody wants that, least of all me.