Kyle LeBoeuf

There has been a ton of heated discussion all over the internet about some changes made to the developer’s agreement in the iPhone OS 4.0 that includes the banning of tools that allow developers to port applications written in other languages not supported by the iPhone. The most prominent of these tools is a part of the new Flash CS5 that is being developed by Adobe.

The tool included in the Flash CS5 product will allow developers to export code written for Flash so that it is supported by the iPhone.

As of iPhone OS 4.0, developers will no longer be able to use these tools. This has caused a severe backlash from some in the developer community and we are beginning to see the battle lines being drawn.

On one hand, you have Apple, who stands by their decision to ban these tools based the fact that applications built with these tools will not get along with features and APIs that are being introduced in the update.

On the other, you have companies like Adobe, who’s product will be left out in the cold. Adobe took such offense at Apple’s move that one it’s prominent employees blasted Apple on his personal blog.

My own personal opinion follows:

==Begin Rant==

Flash sucks. Get over it Adobe.

Apple doesn’t support Flash’s platform because it’s terrible. The number one cause of crashes in OS X are flash-related. The number one cause of crashes in Internet Explorer are plug-in related. Guess which plug-in is the most common on Internet Explorer? Yep. You got it. Flash.

If Adobe would put more effort into improving the stability of its media platform, perhaps companies like Apple would consider adopting it into their devices.

Instead, we get this craptastic plug-in.

Apple is not really to blame here. They are protecting their platform and their users and encouraging open innovating through the use of HTML5 over technologies like Flash.

The clock is ticking Adobe. HTML5 will replace your Flash platform.

==End Rant==