On sub-standard apps
Steve Jobs (via TechCrunch): Intermediate layers between the platform and the developer ultimately produces sub-standard apps and hinders the progress of the platform.
That’s the first thing I read this morning… I agree with Greg Slepak (CEO of TaoEffect) who wrote:
Crappy developers will make crappy apps regardless of how many layers there are.
That doesn’t mean that all developers using a specific layer will build crappy apps.
Chroma Circuit by Bowlerhat Games is a very good example. Chroma Circuit started out as a Flash based web game. It was one of the first apps that got packaged as an iPhone app using the Packager for iPhone. Apple didn’t seem to mind playing Chroma Circuit on their iDevices as they featured it as a staff pick on iTunes a while ago.
Fickleblox by BlueSkyNorth is another good example. This application started out as a Flash Lite game and is thereby available on a broad range of devices. It was also packaged using the Packager for iPhone and thus available in the app store.
Both applications (and there are dozens like this in the app store today) are fun to play, easy to use and perform well on the iDevice. You can hardly call that sub-standard! You can also hardly say that they hinder the progress of the platform. In fact… I think it is Apple who is now effectively hindering the progress of the iDevice platform. By allowing “intermediate layers” like Flash but also Unity, Titanium, MonoTouch, Corona, … the platform has become more open and appealing to non Obj-C/C/C++ developers. More developers (regardless of which technology they use) on the platform = more applications in the appstore. I wonder how many apps in the appstore today were built using one of these intermediate layers…
I’m with Adobe and all other intermediate layer providers, for that matter!
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Serge, Adobe just have trouble with Flash platform politics now. All these reasoning will not help for any agreement because Apple will just ignore Flash and try to kill it if possible. This looks possible on mobile platform if Android or others can not create something which effects Apple’s mobile dominance.
Adobe already failed on Flash mobile and I think Adobe should just focus on more PS, LC, etc. instead of mobile market. There was an open market for mobile devices with Flash but what I know and see is there is still not a proper/acceptable Flash mobile version. Even Java was the leader on mobile before Apple comes.
We Adobe designers/developers asking dear Adobe marketing team, what/how we will explain questions about “Is Flash a dead technology?” questions for our decision makers. We all know there is a bad reputation on Flash already on developers because of “skip it” effects and we were trying to heal it with Flex. But “clever” Adobe marketing killed all these with pushing Flash everywhere without listening the community/customers. Now it it their turn to recover!
Please make some serious noise to save Flash! Please help us to keep the Flash platform idea also on management/marketing level. But be serious!
@Sarp Flash does not need saving, it’s doing just fine. But I’ll make sure to drop you a note once my workload dries up – currently I get enough requests to employ another 5 clones of myself.
Why dont Apple block Techno and HipHop from the iTunes store?
The same arguments apply – all those bleeps and samples are just sub-standard sounds and its not proper music so it doesnt belong on an iDevice. And anyway there are already too many songs in the iTunes store.
But they wont do that, because if some people at apple dont like hiphop there are plenty of people who would buy the music and removing a significant chunk of products from your store wouldnt be very smart.
Unless of’course its flash/unity not Hiphop/techno
@sarp – I think it’s very clear that Apple are not ignoring Flash, they seem to spend alot of time and effort talking about it! The reason is simple, Flash is very popular with content providers and brands and Apple is trying to pull them into their closed ecosystem, where they can charge 30%-40% for the privilege.
Flash does not need to be saved – content providers are smart enough to recognize a smear campaign.
To argue that Adobe failed in the mobile space with Flash Lite is not true. We shipped over 1.2Billion devices with Flash Lite, creating hundreds of millions of dollars. We enabled OEMs like LG to become world leaders and created billionaire developers in Japan.
Java has shipped on more devices over time obviously, but was so badly fragmented that each OEM has a different version. Of course the numbers are meaningless, no-one is building JavaME applications.
Moving forward we’ll have Flash Player 10.1 and AIR on Android, Nokia and RIM devices. You’ll be able to create applications that run across all of these. I’d say the iPhone is dead, ask any teenager which phone they want.
By the way, their answer is often Blackberry.
Mark
Not only are layers not a bad thing, I dare say they represent the future of application development. Layers enable application builders to focus on the user experience and the general design of their game/application.
Programming directly in a machine-level language like JAVA or Objective C is only feasible for larger companies that can afford to have dedicated programmers and dedicated interaction designers.
Trying to stop progress just to “protect” your platform (like apple does) will only result in that progress happening somewhere else, (for example, android).