Apple recently decided not to allow applications written in 3rd party languages in the AppStore. By requiring people to develop in Objective-C and the like, they pretty much require you to run on a Mac. This would ensure a sale of hardware. If you develop in Flash and transform your app to iPhone/iPad executable you could bypass this requirement. You'd still have to have a developer license so you can submit the app to AppStore but you could do it from Windows.

I can see this whole Apple debacle not going so well in Europe. They have experience there fighting Microsoft and they will not put up with Apple either. It's debatable whether Apple needs European sales, but be sure Europe is going to investigate them before 2010 ends. The idea here is that barriers of entry should not be artificial. Like Microsoft keeping the specs for certain things hidden from developers. I always despised Apple for requiring developers run a Mac. there was no reason why they couldn't port the developer stack to Windows and they would have gotten more app submissions. But that wouldn't sell hardware, would it?

Another angle to this story is what Adobe is going to do. Apple just dissed them and they would be in their right to react. All this while Adobe was one of the few companies that were loyal to Apple throughout their history. Still now, even though Adobe releases for both platform, professional users of the Adobe programs are still Mac users. If I were them I'd switch my tools to be primarily for windows and I'd refuse to develop for the Mac. Actually, they could just release their Mac software 6-9 months later then the Windows version. Let's see how apple would like it. If anybody tries to copy Photoshop or the like, just sue them. It would probably be a good moment for Adobe to enforce any patents they have. There's got to be something they can challenge Apple with.

It's clear by now that the masses love the iP* devices. And they don't care in which language the apps are written. They love it cause its simple and intuitive and does not crash. However, I think Apple is losing the geeks; and this ultimately might be their demise.

EDIT: Apparently, Adobe is already working on releasing <canvas> enabled versions of flash/illustrator and dreamweaver. Watch this:

Quote: "I think this is a key point: Adobe makes money selling tools, not distributing viewing software. Those tools must address customer needs. If Flash Player is the right choice for some projects & HTML/CANVAS for others, no problem: we get paid to help you solve problems, not to force one implementation vs. another."

He got it right. If you look at the Flash 10 versus JS/HTML5: The Tour Guide you'll see that JS/HTML5 is very close to being able to provide all the features currently offered by flash. RIP flash player, but Flash the editor/tool will keep on living.

EDIT2: Apparently the new TOS has to be accepted by developers before April 22nd so it is not bundled with iPhone OS 4.0; it comes before 4.0 ships. Via comments on: http://developer.appcelerator.com/blog/2010/04/iphone-os-4-0-announcemen...

EDIT3: Tip of the hat to Kevin: http://www.peerbox.com:8668/space/start/2010-04-09/1#Is_Apple_Totalitarian?

Awesome post/rant and comments here: http://whydoeseverythingsuck.com/2010/04/steve-jobs-has-just-gone-mad.html

http://theflashblog.com/?p=1888 - Apple Slaps Developers In The Face - Lee Brimelow - Platform Evangelist at Adobe focusing on the Flash, Flex, and AIR developer communities.