

Dear Apple fans, a plea for reason and civility. - thedz
http://blog.nodnod.net/post/514854835/with-friends-like-these

======
raganwald
My observation of the current nine days' wonder is that many of the arguments
are falling into a false dichotomy trap. If Apple is right, Adobe must be
wrong. If Adobe is right, Apple must be wrong. If Apple is right, developers
must be wrong. If developers are right, Apple must be wrong.

It's entirely fair for Adobe to be right to attempt to lock developers into
the Flash platform and for Apple to be right to attempt to lock developers
into the iPhone platform.

It's entirely fair for Developers to be right to want the freedom to develop
any app they want, any way they want to develop it, _even if in aggregate such
decisions kill iPhone and/or Apple_. And it's entirely fair for Apple to want
to ban apps that do not further Apple's interests, compete with its own
developers when it further's Apple's interests, and impede or block outright
development platforms that undermine its interests.

When all the name-calling stops, the parties involved have to either search
for an equilibrium where everyone benefits or choose not to play with each
other.

~~~
corruption
Come on. Apple has an effective monopoly on mobile mini-computers. They have
essentially created their own category, as the iphone was such a game changer.
I would not consider anything pre-android or windows mobile 7 competitors, and
perhaps regulators would too.

Imagine the uproar that would have happened if Microsoft had said you can only
write windows apps in assembly.

It's not about Adobe. Or titanium. Or unity. It's about abuse of a monopoly in
a category they created with a business decision that only serves to extend
their monopoly.

In my opinion that's exactly when a regulator should step in.

~~~
raganwald
Please be careful. "Oh, come on" is patronizing. Did you mean it that way?

An "effective monopoly" is not measured by market share alone, it's measured
by barriers to entry. Ok, there are 130,000 iPhone apps, and that's a draw for
iPhone. But how many of those are de-facto standards people cannot do without?
I would argue that _none_ are. Consider the Office Suite. What app for iPhone
is just like Office Suite, one you have to have and can't get on any other
mobile device?

What blocks developers fromn developing for Android, Symbian, or what-have
you? Nothing. Can I buy a "mobile computer" from another carrier? Sure. Doe
smy carrier (Rogers/Fido) lock me into iPhone? No, they are happy to sell me a
Blackberry.

There is no monopoly.

~~~
corruption
I honestly can't see how you think it's ok for apple to try and lock people
into developing for the iphone. If that's what you really believe then please
explain why you think that's ok, especially that _in their segment_ they are
by far and away the market leader.

The only devices comparable at the moment are android, and with a quick search
iphone have slightly more than 80% of the market.

>An "effective monopoly" is not measured by market share alone, it's measured
by barriers to entry.

One such barrier to entry is the lack of cross-platform applications. Another
is Apples patent portfolio. Another is metcalfes law and how it relates to
revenue of application developers, and their willingness to switch. Why would
developers develop for symbian when they can make a killing on iphone
applications (either writing for hire or selling)?

80% share, _huge_ barriers to entry. Are you sure there isn't a monopoly?

~~~
raganwald
You ask a good question. My understanding is that 80+% market share is not a
barrier to entry even when there are strong incentives for developers to
develop for iPhone.

The barrier to developing for other platforms will come down to the question
of whether banning Flash apps and/or compiling Flash to Objective C
effectively monopolizing applications.

I personally do not think so, but I am not a jurur.

As long as Apple permits the time-honored method of writing an application in
C with #ifdef iPhone sprinkled throughout, there is no obstacle to writing one
application that compiles for two or more platforms.

What they are trying to prohibit is writing one program that compiles for one
platform (Flash) which happens to run on two or more mobile operating systems.
They are not raising barriers to developing applications on multiple
platforms, they are raising barriers to creating a new application platform
that commoditizes their hardware by turning it into a rendering device on
equal footing with its competition.

The difference between #ifdef and writing for Flash may seem small, but it
comes down to information hiding. Flash insulates the developer from Apple's
API. A FLash developer is free to know nothing about an iPhone or Android or
anything else. He is a Flash developer. If Flash doesn't support some feature
like detecting when the phone is shaken, the Flash developer may be blissfully
unaware

A #ifdef programmer learns two or more platform APIs. Such a programmer is an
iPhone developer. Even if they consciously try to avoid using features that
are not present on all the platforms they target, they are probably aware of
them and how much better their iPhone app could be if it used them.

I appreciate that you hold an opinion that Apple should be legally barred from
trying to force people writing applications that happen to run on iPhone from
being iPhone developers in the sense I describe, but I certainly can't fault
them for trying.

~~~
corruption
If I were apple I would do exactly the same thing :)

------
yardie
I think both authors are right. It's not a right or wrong between these 2
companies. They are big companies doing what's in the best interest of each.
At the same time, no matter how the saying goes, business is intensely
personal. Steve Jobs didn't call Google's, "don't be evil" mantra bullshit for
no reason. The man has done and seen a lot of things over the years, you build
up a think armor during that time.

At one point Adobe and Apple were closely aligned. Adobe saw the writing on
the wall and bailed on Apple. Jobs came on board introduced OSX and things
were whisper quiet. I was there using 10.0, 10.1, and 10.2, it didn't get
"good enough" until 10.2. Adobe didn't move most of their products to OS X
until CS2, dropped SKUs for some items, and froze development on others
<cough>Flash</cough>.

If Jobs learned anything it was never let another company direct your product
development. Because Macs were used in creative design markets most users
didn't see a need to upgrade from OS9. Photoshop wasn't on OSX, not was Flash,
Illustrator etc.

I don't agree with jobs, but he is correct up to a point. He won't let Flash
hinder the development of iPhoneOS. Developers are caught in the middle
though. He could have singled out Adobe and let developers continue to use
Mono, Unity, Titanium. But contracts are quite blunt instruments, define it to
narrow and companies can walk around it; too loose and you get the current
situation.

Anyway it's like investing in the US. Everyone will bitch about the terms but
they'll continue shoveling money (or development time in this case) until
there is no money to be made.

------
jpcx01
Ok. So how does an Apple fan respond to something they intensely dislike?

It's very difficult not to express complete and utter disdain and contempt for
people like Gruber who expresses such an unbelievable idiotic opinion, that
are then used by Apple management to justify to themselves why their decision
is correct. Sometimes its only natural question to question someones motives
when their reasoning is so illogical. Maybe he is that blinded by his
fanboyism that he's willing to accept any limits to freedom.

Sorry, it just makes me sick. I've never been a Microsoft fan, but they've
never ever made a decision that was this abusive to their developers or
anyone. And yes, that includes their terrible choice of bundling IE with
windows (people still at least had a choice).

~~~
sunchild
You have a choice not to develop for the iPhone OS. Who is twisting your arm?

Give the rhetoric a break. It's you who is being contemptuous.

~~~
jpcx01
Great answer. I also like the one "Don't like the government? Move to another
country".

~~~
sunchild
Oh please. If you can't see the difference between a government encroaching on
your human rights, and Apple restricting your use of development tools...well,
I guess you just proved that you don't see the difference. It must suck being
you.

~~~
jpcx01
Of course there's a difference. Who said there wasn't? But the attitude is the
same. "Screw your opinion, go home if you don't like it".

~~~
sunchild
By that logic, no one can impose any restrictions on anything ever.

------
andyjdavis
Apple provokes an almost religious zeal in some. Adobe provokes an equally
religious hatred. Hoping for a reasoned civil debate is perhaps... optimistic.

~~~
nazgulnarsil
I think reasonable civil people hate apple about in line with how much they
hate other companies that treat their customers badly and find continued
success.

------
jayroh
Excellent blog post. I think you could replace Apple and Adobe with a good
number of arbitrary products or companies (or political parties) and it would
still make perfect sense. When emotional attachment is introduced, all sorts
of reason goes out the window.

Step back, chill and see the forest for the trees.

------
thmz
In all the Apple fuzz there is a good lesson about quality I guess.

Apple fan's love Apple products because they are good. They look great. They
work great. They feel like they were made for you.

For me the lesson is: create better products. Make people love your product.
Make it for them.

~~~
leviathant
Banning things like Flash to iPhone app compilers won't make apps like sound
grenade, various boob jigglers, and background/ringtone collections suddenly
go away.

There's already a process for eliminating poor quality applications for the
iPhone. It's just not used to a good enough effect. Jobs said the iPhone has
over 50,000 games -he left out that 45,950 of them suck. Mandating use of the
official SDK won't change that.

~~~
thmz
I'm not talking about Apple being right or wrong here. I just noticed that the
Apple fanboy's are fans because of the quality of Apple products. And it
learned me a lesson...

------
buymorechuck
I believe most serious iPhone developers are fairly pragmatic and reasonable
but we tend not to see those articles because they don't make good news once
the main point has already been made. (including my own blog post on the
topic)

