Whenever a proprietary operating system company gets enough market share, they ignore common sense and courtesy.
One of the things that impelled me to launch Tuxrocket instead of quietly leaving the Mac fold and going 100% Linux was the fact that I was so locked into Apple products (and products that only ran on Apple products). To this day, we essentially have to keep a Mac Mini running with our iTunes video purchases. By buying Apple I had sold my life to them.
Those that care already know that Flash doesn’t run on the iPhone. I will state right now that I am not one who cares.
So Adobe cleverly created a tool in their impending launch that takes a Flash file and creates an iPhone app out of it. There are a couple other products that do similar things.
But in their new iPhone 4.0, these will apparently be out the window. In fact, Apple has so much control in the space that they can tell you what programming languages to use. You can “think different” as long as you’re thinking how Apple wants you to.
Adobe headquarters must be literally filled with yells and screams right now. The launch of their new product has been answered by Apple: “Oh, you’re going to compile Flash into something the iPhone will run. Ummm. No, I don’t think so.” And frankly, Adobe can’t do a thing about it. The iPhone is in Steve Jobs’ pocket.
If anyone out there was wondering if Apple has gone power-crazy, you should have your answer now.
Support openness. Don’t go for lock-in. Go for empowerment.