In other words, when the news broke about Apple’s new developer rules, programmers didn’t rush out to buy Adobe Creative Suite 5, which includes Adobe’s Packager for iPhone, out of excitement over the opportunity to code Flash apps that they could also sell to iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch customers.
This is hardly a surprise. Every iOS developer I’ve spoken to has agreed that anybody serious about creating iOS apps is going to use Apple’s native SDK in order to get the best results. The people who would’ve wanted to create iOS apps using Flash were probably already Flash developers to begin with, hence the “muted” effect on sales.
That doesn’t go to say that the removal of the restrictions was trivial. When Apple imposed the ban on third-party toolkits (notoriously known as section 3.3.1 of the iOS developer agreement) it sparked controversy among programmers debating about the implications on creative freedom in the App Store.
Also, there was some collateral damage incurred on creators beyond Adobe. For example, the app Scratch, which displayed stories, games and animations made by children using MIT’s Scratch platform, waspulled from the App Store.
John McIntosh, creator of the Scratch app, said on Twitter that he was still awaiting a response from Apple on whether Scratch would be approved in the App Store in light of the new developer rules.
See Also:
- Apple Eases App Development Rules, Adobe Surges
- Apple Answers Questions About App Rejections, Raises Others …
- Apple Rejects Kid-Friendly Programming App
- Steve Jobs Debates Developers Over Apple’s New App Policy
Authors: Brian X. Chen