Sign in / up

back to article Adobe to sue Apple 'within weeks,' says report

Adobe intends to sue Apple over the recent SDK change that bans iPhone and iPad applications translated from languages Steve Jobs doesn't like, according to a report citing sources close to Adobe. IT World reports that Adobe will sue Apple "within a few weeks," after the Jobsian cult not only barred native Flash from the …

COMMENTS

House rules Send corrections
This topic is closed for new posts.

Page:

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Big Brother

    Tell them to stick it

    If the developers' T&Cs are so horrible, why doesn't *everyone* stick two fingers up and simply not write any apps. Sales will plummet and the T&Cs will quickly change.

    Can no one else see how developers enslave themselves and empower platform owners when they moan so vocally yet still jump through hoops to release their apps. the iPhone is only popular because it's perceived there's an app for everything. No apps, no iPhone.

    3 0
  2. R Cox

    What mobile phone has full Flash?

    IMHO, this lawsuit indicates the lack of relevance of Flash i the mobile marketplace. It seems to be clear that Adobe believes that there is a good chance that Flash is going to lose it's place as one of a few de facto web standards, and the only way to save it is to force Apple to support it on the iPhone. After all, we have yet to see Flash on the Blackberry even though it has been rumored for a couple years and allegedly in real development for a year. Likewise MS Kin, the phone that would save the MS phone platform, does not come with flash. Android 2.1 has flash, as well as Palm. But neither are these are yet taking the market by storm. So I guess instead of getting a real mobile strategy, they will sue Apple into doing it for them.

    0 0
  3. Julian Cox
    WTF?

    Let's forget this is about Apple iPhone for a second...

    ... and lets say this was a company that developed for arguments sake an Operating System that ran on, lets call it, Personal Desktop devices.

    Let's now assume they said "the only way you can buy software through our website where we take a cut of everything".

    Let's now say they mandated "only applications developed through our .TEN APIs will be allowed to be submitted to our site. Sorry Sun/Java... sorry all those innovative people who've invested time and effort into alternative technologies... f##k innovation it's our OS - we'll do what we like!"

    Now let's say that company was called Microsoft... what would you Jobsian brown-nosers be saying then?

    Hey - guess what they don't need to ... they have the market sewn up through innovation in a generally (?!) competitive market on that platform... and yet PCs outsell Macs how many to one?

    I'm not an evangelist for any particular company or technology - I am an evangelist for Open, innovative IT! Proprietary sucks... and then it dies. That's what history shows us.

    2 1
    1. Ian Davies
      Reply Icon
      Joke

      <snigger>

      "they have the market sewn up through innovation"

      ggghghggnnnnnn.... *cough*.... BWAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAAAAAA AAAAAAA HAAAA HAA AHAAAAAA HAHAHAHA HAAAAAHAHAAAHAA HAAA HAAAH AHAA HAAA AHAAHA HAAA HAA hAHAAAAAHA AH AHA AHA HAAAAAAAAH AHAAAAAHA HAAAAAA HAA HAAHAAAH AhAAAHA HAAAHA AAAA BWAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAAAAAA AAAAAAA HAAAA HAA AHAAAAAA HAHAHAHA HAAAAAHAHAAAHAA HAAA HAAAH AHAA HAAA AHAAHA HAAA HAA hAHAAAAAHA AH AHA AHA HAAAAAAAAH AHAAAAAHA HAAAAAA HAA HAAHAAAH AhAAAHA HAAAHA AAAA BWAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAAAAAA AAAAAAA HAAAA HAA AHAAAAAA HAHAHAHA HAAAAAHAHAAAHAA HAAA HAAAH AHAA HAAA AHAAHA HAAA HAA hAHAAAAAHA AH AHA AHA HAAAAAAAAH AHAAAAAHA HAAAAAA HAA HAAHAAAH AhAAAHA HAAAHA AAAA aaaaa.... .... . ..

      [wipes tear from eye]

      oooh boy, that was a good one. Thanks.

      3 2
    2. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      The old "if it were Microsoft..." and "Apple 'fanbois' have double standards.." gambits!

      Apologies in advance for the length of this...

      The short version; this argument lacks cogency, is full of holes and tired cliches that have been disproven time and again, but just for the hell of it, here's why:

      That argument is just absolute hogwash! Where does this ridiculous sense of entitlement come from? As some that prefers to work on a Mac, I'd say that *if* Microsoft were doing the same for Windows I'd say "All power to them!". Why? Because it's *their* platform. Simple. So long as it's documented, where is the problem? The other reason is that I am a mature adult that doesn't take these post or the actions of the companies being discussed as a personal affront!

      This *isn't* about an OS that runs on the desktop, it's about a mobile device. Please differentiate between the too. The thing with comments like "the only way you can buy software through our website where we take a cut of everything" is that its just wrong. It's wrong on two counts. The first is one of quality control--not in the quality of the apps, rather the quality of the experience. The second is one of security. Not to mention that if you release the app for free, Apple don't charge (30% of 0 is of course 0), and the charge allows for support for the app developers and the cost of maintaining the store. This is simple commerce. It's how shops have been functioning for centuries

      Let's take this next assumption at face value and actually apply to an, as of yet unreleased, actual product. If one wants to develop apps for Windows Phone 7, one has to use a .Net technology. This does open up other *languages*, but it's exactly as you describe, I haven't heard anyone complain about this. As to whether Microsoft will allow flash on *their* (and it is *theirs*) platform--it's an unknown. I'm not sure, but I believe that Microsoft have indicated that it's something that thay are considering. Strategically, and the decision will be strategic, it might be a good thing from a marketing POV, however taking Microsoft's long-standing security issues and Flashes negation of ASLR and DEP in Windows, it'll be on Microsoft's, terms, and rightly so.

      On to "Sorry Sun/Java... sorry all those innovative people who've invested time and effort into alternative technologies..." Cry me a fucking river, won't you! That is commerce. You go to a bookie. You back a 'sure thing'. It comes in last. Do you go to the bookie "That's not fair! I worked hard for that money! I want it back and I want the winnings that I should have had too!"? No. Same apples here. What about all the people that invested in learning about Be Inc. only for Apple to buy NexT? Sure in this instance Apples loss is Androids gain? I have an Android handset and an iPhone, the overall quality of apps on the iPhone is *vastly* superior to Android, maybe these spurned developers can turn that around?

      "Hey - guess what they don't need to ... they have the market sewn up through innovation in a generally (?!) competitive market on that platform... and yet PCs outsell Macs how many to one?" And what are Apple's profit margins like vs. Dell, HP et al.? I don't see either Dell *or* HP bothering the top 5 global business anytime soon (Apple currently rank 7th while Dell or HP don't even figure in the top 50)! Yes, market share *is* a useful metric, but it's not necessarily an indication of how good a product is, is it, or actually how successful it is

      "I am an evangelist for Open, innovative IT! Proprietary sucks... and then it dies. That's what history shows us." Horse crap! Using your last illustration, history has shown us that a closed proprietary OS has the market! You've succinctly pointed this out already! So you are a Stallmanian ideologue then? That's fine; doesn't make your point any less wrong. Why use Microsoft as example though?

      What Apple have done with the touch interface *is* innovative, like it or not! At least to the extent that all it's competitors have launched devices that mimic theirs. Let me clear one thing up that seems plague arguments like these; innovation != invention and innovation != first.

      2 0

  4. This post has been deleted by its author

    1. Alan_
      Reply Icon
      FAIL

      O rly?

      "I would also admit other natively compiled languages (Unity?) to that fold too for the same reason"

      Then you'll be delighted to find out that Unity is powered by Mono, which is an implementation of the .NET runtime. All your unity code is 100% cross platform pre JIT'ed C# (or whatever .NET language you wrote your app in). Mmmm... isn't middleware delicious.

      0 0
  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    All Adobe need to do...

    ... is make it's Windows CS6 suite identical to the Mac experience, right down to 1 button mouse support. Then discontinue support for it's Mac version when it's released.

    Creative Suite is the only reason we allow Macs at the PLC I work at, everyone else gets PC's. And its only ever the Macs that have "issues" with things like, Exchange, Windows Server shares, funny filenames. Get rid of the Macs and I can half my IT department :)

    1 6
    1. Ivan Headache
      Reply Icon

      err... which 1 button are you talking about?

      the one on the left, the one on the right, the one in the middle or the one on the sides?

      As an IT professional(?) you should know by now that Macs do not have 1 button mice.

      How many years is it?

      3 0
    2. Ian Davies
      Reply Icon
      FAIL

      yeah...

      "And its only ever the Macs that have "issues" with things like, Exchange, Windows Server shares"

      hmm... all those Microsoft technologies that are only half documented because, you know, Microsoft are *really* against the whole concept of lock-in... they're very clear on that.

      Irony much?

      2 0
    3. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      FAIL

      In my experience...

      most companies have busy IT departments because the average PC is a POS and has to be resuscitated every five minutes. Further, having run an IT department with a mix of Macs and PCs, the Macs rarely if ever needed the attentions of a paramedic. They even played nice with the PCs.

      Macs, as any IT "expert" such as yourself (cough!) knows, haven't had single-button mice for many years. Oh, and lightening up the load on a fragile mouse and moving it to the keyboard, where most of the work gets done, makes a lot of sense unless all you're doing is playing WoW.

      I would suggest that, in future, if you have little or no real knowledge of a piece of kit, you probably didn't wanna go on a public forum like El Reg and whine about it.

      4 0
  6. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    Some suggestions to Microsoft

    1) Any application that does not follow the Windows Development Guidelines should be terminated immediately by the OS. They could slow down Windows a lot.

    2) Do not let any client connect to Exchange natively but Outlook. But Outlook any client is bad written and should not access the server but via IMAP/SMTP

    3) Do not let any office application but Office open Office documents, they could easily trash them because they don't support all the features.

    4) Allow only VC++ and .NET approved languages to be used as Windows development tools. Get rid of Java, PHP, Python, Ruby, etc. etc, they all will make Windows looks slow.

    5) Do not allow any non-Windows client to connect to Windows servers - unless they are MS approved to ensure protocols implementation are high-quality and properly done.

    6) Forbid installation of any browser - EU was wrong to rule other browser could be installed, they could destabilize the system and deliver not a fully correct user experience.

    7) Wait for the Apple fanboys cry "Microsoft can't do this!"

    3 2
    1. Ivan Headache
      Reply Icon

      I think you are missing the plot here

      The issue is about developing for a new platform - not for a platform that has been around for donkey's years.

      What better way to ensure stability and economy of code than to keep close tabs on what is being used to create that code.

      2 3
    2. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      And

      Lots of people get upset as Windows becomes much more stable, but totaly unusable for most things as you can't install most stuff you want to use, like, oh, I don't know, a Mac.

      0 0
    3. Chemist
      Reply Icon

      Re : Some suggestions to Microsoft

      I think by these rules you may have stopped Microsoft using most of it's own apps

      2 0
    4. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Pint

      Missing the point

      Apple control the iPhone. If you want to release an app, Apple have to approve it. Apple are therefore responsbile for the stability of the environment - there is no one else to blame. If they want code to be optimised then they can say so, if this reduces the availabilty of applications and people choose Android, Microsoft or Nokia OS phones then they will pay the price for this control.

      With Windows, it's a platform that's uncontrolled. Great for experimentation and innovation. Terrible for stability - unless you are a large "corporate" and lock down the environment in which case it's as bad as the iPhone (have to get apps approved, built according to standards, tested to make sure there are no DLL or other conflicts etc.).

      Control and stbility versus freedom and flexibility - your choice. I prefer stability and will pay the price for the subsequent control (even if means there are less apps on the App Store because of it).

      A pint - we have choices, unlike the desktop OS there is no monopoly* in the smartphone OS market.

      *In the UK a firm is said to have Monopoly power if it has more than 25% of Market share, though the US Sherman Act meaning is a situation in which there is a single supplier or seller of a good or service for which there are no close substitutes.

      2 0
  7. Efros
    Thumb Up

    The Bitchslap is on

    Now all we have to figure out is who is the bitch?

    3 0
  8. James O'Brien
    Thumb Up

    Well then

    This should be an interesting outcome in the end:

    As much as I hate crApple and their lockin on hardwear and softwear, Adobe does have a LARGE customer base with flash (namely 98% of the net it seems, I cant go anywhere anymore without seeing the lovely little symbol from flashblock being displayed)

    This may get me flamed but for those who do re-read what i said again. This isnt for or against either company. Personally i do think this will be a test not only for the EULA/vendor lockin for the SDK or the OS, but also for the restrictions placed by Adobe on their own softwear. Should be a good time.

    1 1
  9. Anonymous Coward
    Alert

    Hooray, I hope that they both lose..

    They both make products that I use and value, but honestly, they are behaving like a bunch of flapping walrus cocks over this. Toys out of pram can get rather tiring..

    4 0
    1. fred #257
      Reply Icon
      Pint

      Aaaargh!

      Flapping walrus cocks?

      You, sir, owe me a new keyboard.

      0 0
      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        Ah...

        It's been a long time since weve had a good animal/genital insult around here.

        0 0
  10. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    The real questions are...

    "What they are saying is that they won’t allow applications onto their marketplace solely because of what language was originally used to create them,"

    C, C++ and Java are allowed.

    What languages do Adobe plan to write their applications in?

    ...because if they plan to let just anyone take a file and turn it into a native executable then that's a security nightmare just waiting to happen!

    Let's be honest, Flash is looking pretty old-hat these days. I found an HTML 5.0 browser (still under dev obviously) that can play Quake 2. FFS Quake 2!! Can Flash do that? No.

    What it seems to be used for is as a wrapper around video or for annoying adverts. We don't need to wrap video in Flash in this day and age and I for one could do without annoying buzzing, moving or musical adverts, tyvm!

    0 0
  11. Big-nosed Pengie
    FAIL

    I don't get it

    Why gives a flying fuck what language it's written in.

    I have no love for either Apple or Adobe, but surely it's up the user to decide what they want to run or not run their equipment?

    3 1
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      No

      If there is a problem and they want Apple to be responsbile then no, it's up to Apple. The iPhone is a controlled environment. Less choice.

      If it's up to the user, like on most Windows machines, then you're right - good luck with those DLL conflicts, Registry settings etc. etc. Of course, the benefit is you have freedom and choice.

      1 0
  12. tempemeaty

    Grease abobe's ears...the doors narrow to for their head

    Now Adobe wants to dictate to another company how that company is to make it's products? Dear Adobe...arrogant much? Hahahaha...

    4 1
    1. David McMahon
      Reply Icon
      Jobs Horns

      Ban CS5 on macs!

      I think Adobe got a case, Apple are at least anti-competitive

      I do wish Adobe would not release Photoshop for mac's the fan boi's would have to get a PC then! Ha...

      They would probably still stick a sodding Apple sticker on their thinkpads though!

      1 2
      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        No head for business...

        You don't get how business works, do you? Let's follow your suggestion through shall we? Do you suppose that if Adobe "ban" their software on the Mac platform that the ~70% of all their CS sales (yes, it is *that* biased towards Mac) will all migrate to Windows, *just* to continue using Adobe tools? I don't generally do "ad hominem", but are you 12? What *will* happen is that in 2-3 years, Adobe will be bought out or go bankrupt. They are small fry in financial terms, with an annual turn over of ~$2.9 billion, and a net income of just $386.5 million. A business like Apple or Microsoft could swallow up Adobe whole, and have change to buy their share holders a slap-up meal at Petrus, with a bottle of 1947 Chateau Pétrus Pomerol on each table! Maybe that'd be the best course of action for Apple--an hostile takeover.

        >"I think Adobe got a case, Apple are at least anti-competitive" When you think 'anti-competative' consider *if* there is any comparable competition that suffers economically as a result. In this instance, the answer is an emphatic no. If anything, from the amount of ranting here the opposite is true; this will spur on developers to develop apps for Apple's competition, which franky Android, Blackberry and Nokia(ha!) need! Apple are at worst being protectionist--nothing illegal about that.

        There is a general misconception that Apple are blocking Adobe's entry into the iPhone market. They are not. They are blocking individuals from using Adobe's software to develop apps for Apple's platform. Apple are also blocking Adobe's proprietary runtime from their OS--again, nothing illegal about that.

        The words 'anti-competative' and 'monopoly' are used way too much around here, and it seems as though the main protagonist do not actually know what they are talking about.

        1 0
        1. vic 4
          Reply Icon
          Black Helicopters

          Re: No head for business...

          > There is a general misconception that Apple are blocking Adobe's entry into the iPhone market. They are not. They are blocking individuals from using Adobe's software to develop apps for Apple's platform.

          I think the main point is being lost here and focus is being place on Adobe because it affects them. However Apple, in their traditionally "lets be vauge to cover case where we want to change our minds, pretend thats what we had in mind from the start or just cover inconsistent application" way, appear to be implying that developers can't use generation tools, platform dependent abstractions.

          I rarely develop an application with 100% hand written code, if I do then you can bet it is a trivial application. I, and many people/shops out there would write a DSL (domain specific language), from which an interpreter executes those at runtime or generate java/c/obj-c as applicable. Apple have already had place T&Cs to prevent you from having an interpreter, which while it is pretty poor from my point of view I'll concede the point. However this new change to the T&Cs seem to suggest I can no longer use my generator stragegy, i.e. this seems to prevent me from writing some of my logic in a language I created (or something like flash) and then translating that into objective-c or c++. Obviously iun teh case of flash apps, these would require a flash runtime, but Adobe would have to write this in c/c++/obj-c and the deveopers app would have to link against that.

          Apple appear to be implying that you can't use libraries that abstract away the underlying OS, allowing the developer to code against another library, that library then calls the relevant runtime library. Software developers have been using this approach pretty much for the whole history of programming.

          The point is why should apple dictate what I language write my application in, as long as it does not call teh so called "private" API and does not interpret code at runtime (guess that rules out algebraic calculators?) what concern is it of theirs, it's an implemenation issue. What next, I have to use xcode to type the actual code instead of emacs, hell I even write some of the code under linux.

          The only reason I can think of is that would make it harder to support multiple platforms, as we won't be able to write apps in something neutral and then compile that into something runnable on iphone, andrond, mac/win/linux desktop, web app. Maybe developers would have to prioritize platforms and the iPhone is (currently) the leader

          > Apple are also blocking Adobe's proprietary runtime from their OS--again, nothing illegal about that.

          What is different to that and using any other library from a third party. As long as that runtime is not calling an <illegal> api method or interpreting any code, I'd expect it to simply translate the intent into the relevant iphone method, that coupled with a tool from above to turn your flash to objective-c or an compiled object file/library so that there is nothing interpreted.

          0 0
      2. Euchrid
        Reply Icon

        re: Ban CS5 on macs

        "I do wish Adobe would not release Photoshop for mac's the fan boi's would have to get a PC then! Ha"

        Alternatively, they could just run Photoshop in a Windows environment on their Macs - in fact, a lot of users would be better off doing that in any case as the Windows version offers better performance (and is 64-bit) than the Mac version. Quite a while ago, a PC magazine did a group test of laptops running PS and found for the best performance came from a MacBook Pro running Windows.

        0 0
    2. Rolf Howarth
      Reply Icon

      @tempemeaty

      They're not doing that all. They're not trying to dictate that you must use Adobe tools, they're saying that Apple shouldn't dictate that you can't. Big difference.

      Give the developers the choice to use what tools they want. It's like a web site hosting company saying you can only put JPEGs on your web pages if they were created in Paintshop Pro.

      1 2
      1. vic 4
        Reply Icon

        @tempemeaty

        It's probably more akin to devloping your web site using xml, say schema/data representing a product catalog, and then transforming that that into static html pages.

        1 0
  13. Anonymous Coward
    Grenade

    my two cents

    If most interactive content apps that came out of Adobe weren't the launch points for more exploits and the cause of an infinite number of system hangs or outright crashes, then I'd say Jobs was being the usual dick we've all come to know. And while it will be a cold day in hell before I ever purchase an apple product, I support Jobs on this one.

    Adobe: Clean up your crap or go away!

    0 0
  14. Dodgy Dave

    Developers = X-Factor contestants

    I'm amazed that Apple keep knocking back iPhone developers, yet the apps keep coming. I can only imagine that the App Store is full and they have no more resource to spend approving apps - instead they're just beating developers with a shitty stick to see if they'll go away.

    I'm 100% (well, 99%) behind Jobs' war on Flash, but it's a risky game: if Android apps are mostly crummy and iPhone ones remain slick, he retains his saintly reputation. If Android apps start to do useful or cool things that an iPhone can't, he will look like an arrogant fool.

    Cheers

    DD

    2 0
  15. Svein Skogen
    Grenade

    A cute solution would be

    If Adobe cut the price for the Windows version of CS5 in half, and increased the Apple version by a third. That would make a few beancounters calculate, and come back with the result "apple users are too expensive to employ" and give those who now are on the creative suite the option of tossing out their fruit-cases or getting tossed out ALONG with the fruit-cases. ;)

    Making apple-customers lose their income would solve a lot of the problems. ;)

    //Svein

    1 2
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      WTF?

      re: A cute solution would be

      “If Adobe cut the price for the Windows version of CS5 in half, and increased the Apple version by a third. That would make a few beancounters calculate, and come back with the result "apple users are too expensive to employ" and give those who now are on the creative suite the option of tossing out their fruit-cases or getting tossed out ALONG with the fruit-cases. ;)

      Making apple-customers lose their income would solve a lot of the problems. ;)”

      What on Earth are you talking about?

      In that case, all the companies would need to do is to run CS in Windows on existing Mac hardware (for the last few years, all Macs can run Windows) in return for a whopping discount.

      Of course, users may have the oh-so difficult task having to remember different keyboard shortcuts…

      0 0
      1. James Butler
        Reply Icon
        Thumb Down

        @AC 12:56

        "In that case, all the companies would need to do is to run CS in Windows on existing Mac hardware (for the last few years, all Macs can run Windows) in return for a whopping discount."

        Discount? You still have to purchase a Windows license, take the time to install it into BootCamp and then buy the Windows version of the software and install that, too. In terms of both time and money, it's more expensive to run dual boot when two proprietary operating systems are involved. Maybe you are referring to the 50% price difference in the software (as proposed by the OP), but even a 50% "discount" on CS won't make up for the rest of the expense.

        0 0
  16. Anonymous Coward
    Jobs Horns

    Waste of money.

    All Adobe has to do actually to to publish a press release that has:-

    ...the 'Adobe Creative Suite', 'cancelled' and 'Mac OS X' phrases in the first sentence.

    ...the 'exclusive' and 'Microsoft Windows' phrases in the second sentence.

    Flash support will be in iPhone 4.0 in a flash if that happened.

    2 2
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Thumb Down

      re: Waste of money

      Hardly.

      As someone pointed out on here on yet another story about the Apple/Adobe spat (the Adobe Man saying Apple can screw itself), Adobe basically said 'up yours, Apple... screw OS X, Windows is the way to go' years ago - the AC listed how little Adobe developed for the Mac platform in the last ten years (as was mentioned it ported PS to OS X in 2005!). If Adobe is soooo important to the overall Mac market, why did Adobe's obvious reluctance to bring out OS X native apps have so little effect?

      As has been pointed out, the majority of CS users use Macs... looking over the fact that all Macs in the last few years can run Windows (so it's not as if users would not be able to use CS on their machines), how many do you think would really blame Adobe?

      Adding a little conspiracy theory of my own, maybe Apple wouldn't mind Adobe pulling out of the Mac market...

      0 0
  17. rcdicky
    Flame

    Is anyone else getting a bit bored of this now?

    Surely it's up to Apple what it wants to run on it's own hardware?

    I quite liked the idea of Adobe pulling all of it's products from Mac though, now that WOULD light a few fires wouldn't it? :D

    As for the poor developers being locked in. Poor them eh? Haven't a lot of people who've written apps/games etc made quite a bit of money from releasing apps on the iPhone?

    From what I can see, it's a fairly easy way of getting a product out there. Even though sometimes they have to jump through a few Apple approval hoops, it's still quite straightforward.

    1 1
    1. vic 4
      Reply Icon

      RE: Is anyone else getting a bit bored of this now?

      Then stop reading!

      > Surely it's up to Apple what it wants to run on it's own hardware?

      Surely it's up the person who bought it. These changes to T&Cs are going to affect existing apps that may now be withdrawn or have updates/support withdrawn, will Apple give me a refund on my phone. For that matter wIll Apple refund the cash I had to fork out just for the privilege to put software I wrote onto my own phone and to give them stuff to sell and take a cut.

      > As for the poor developers being locked in. Poor them eh? Haven't a lot of people who've written apps/games etc made quite a bit of money from releasing apps on the iPhone?

      Sure there are few who made quite a bit, but not that many. It will be the customer who ends up paying, more developemnt time means more cash that has to come in to cover costs, tax, living expenses, then pensions, vacations health insurance etc. How many apps at say 1.99 would you have to seel per month to get your monthly salary and perks before tax, baring in mind that 30% goes to apple.

      > From what I can see, it's a fairly easy way of getting a product out there. Even though sometimes they have to jump through a few Apple approval hoops, it's still quite straightforward.

      Yes is staright forward, but apple's changes in strategy are making it harder then it should be and there is a large risk that all your work can be need replacing just becuase apple chaneg the goal posts half way through.

      I now only write iphone software for other people, my own work is focused on the future, and that future is open and unrestrictive.

      0 0
  18. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    Help please!

    Will someone please provide me with a time machine? If I have one of those I can go back in time and prevent the utter shit that is Flash from ever existing and make the world a better and happier place.

    1 0
  19. Eddie Edwards
    Grenade

    Wow

    It only just occurred to me that the Jobsian cult with their hatred of translation layers has pretty much banned any cross-platform application at all, even if they only use a thin C++ class over the top of the published APIs. So, no writing Android + iPhone apps in the same codebase.

    This is clearly insane.

    0 0
  20. TeeCee Gold badge

    Strange attitudes here.

    We've had plenty of previous stories around here where a small developer has been fucked by the Apple due to a capricious rule change. Most of these have resulted in howls of outrage from all bar the drooling fanbois.

    Now they've done it to Adobe. Adobe are a big company who can afford to sue the fuck out of them for their wasted time and effort in producing flash encapsulation for an iPhone runtime.

    I don't think that the fact that Adobe are a bunch of twunts with a shitty product* has any bearing on the rights and wrongs of the situation, so I reckon that most of you are being terribly two-faced. If Adobe were to win this it'd benefit all the small developers too, as Apple would be pretty much forced to provide consistant rules around what they can and can't do and stick to them in future. With a precedent set, just about anyone could afford to sue based on it.

    As for the Ts and Cs, if a court were to find that any clauses were unreasonable (and anything like "we reserve the right to move the goalposts without warning whenever we feel like it" would sound like such) they'll just strike 'em down.

    *AFAICS nobody, not even Adobe, is suggesting that anyone be forced to install or use it. They just want you to have the choice.

    0 2
    1. Ivan Headache
      Reply Icon

      I am now missing the plot here.

      What are Adobe going to sue about?

      Ir's all very well saying the Adobe has lots of dosh and can afford to sue - but what for? No-one in this 'discussion' has come up with anything that warrants a court case.

      0 0
  21. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    I'm with Adobe

    Speaking as an avowed iPad fanboy and a developer (and an AAPL shareholder, and a hater of Flash!) I'm firmly with Adobe on this one and think that Apple have gone one step too far.

    What Apple are basically saying is you can't sell an app for the iPhone/iPad if you also sell the same app for other platforms (using whatever preprocessors or procedures you choose to use internally to develop your apps with).

    I don't know whether it's illegal or not but what Apple are doing is blatantly anti-competitive and it sucks.

    1 0
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Stop

      "...what Apple are doing is blatantly anti-competitive..."

      No. Protectionist? Yes! Unnecessary? Maybe, but Adobe's heel-dragging on Apple's other platform has probably fostered this approach. It's not anti-competative at all.

      0 0
  22. _mark
    WTF?

    Jobs has Lost his Mind..

    EA, Gameloft, Tapulous, and ngmoco are some of the TOP TEN Game Developers in the App Store that use embedded Lua interpreters ..so goodbye to all the TOP RANKED games according to their Terms of Service! LOL

    Apple REALLY shot themselves in the foot on that one! Especially since Jobs demoed Tapulous in the keynote which is one of the apps that should be banned. If they don’t ban ALL THE TOP GAMES for using Lua, and Flash Coded games are banned, Adobe has a solid case for a lawsuit. WOW.

    2 2
  23. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Adobe needs to learn some humility

    for instance, I deleted the Acrobat Reader shortcut from my desktop for a reason. Stop putting it back every fucking time you have to patch your piece of shit bloatware without even giving me the condescending option of a box to untick to stop you doing it. Grr.

    And... breathe

    1 0
  24. asdf
    FAIL

    in other news

    Google will soon open source their new video codec so we can finally start to see Flash die the death that is a decade overdue. Don't get me wrong don't like how Apple does business but at least some of their products are ok and even a bit revolutionary. Adobes products on the other hand are made in India, bloated malware is not fit for any purpose short of getting any platform under the sun owned by script kiddies in record time.

    0 0
  25. khbkhb

    Anyone recall Thompson's ACM Turning speech?

    The topic was security and trust, specifically how he hacked the C compiler to subvert programs compiled with it.

    I predict Apple will use it as the basis of the argument that in order to have a fully trusted platform, they need to manage/own/certify the development tools.

    0 0

Page:

This topic is closed for new posts.

Other stories you might like