Apple's reasons for developer agreement changes seem "all business"

It's not strictly about Adobe and Flash, though some are trying to position it that way. It's not strictly a technical reason either (common sense would say) although others are trying to position it that way. Instead, Apple's decision to change part of its developer agreement to seemingly ban several ways to develop products is a combination of things.

AppleInsider seemingly defended Apple, saying that the decision was related to Apple's implementation of multitasking on the iPhone. While there might be some truth to that, common sense would say that's not the only reason.

At the same time, Adobe’s Platform Evangelist Lee Brimelow blasted Apple today with a post on his Flash Blog. That's his blog, however, and Adobe obviously noticed his post. At the top of the post is a line: [Adobe would like me to make it clear that the opinions below are not the official views of the company and are entirely my own.].

He goes on to say:

This is a frightening move that has no rational defense other than wanting tyrannical control over developers and more importantly, wanting to use developers as pawns in their crusade against Adobe. This does not just affect Adobe but also other technologies like Unity3D. [...]

Personally I will not be giving Apple another cent of my money until there is a leadership change over there. I’ve already moved most of my book, music, and video purchases to Amazon and I will continue to look elsewhere. Now, I want to be clear that I am not suggesting you do the same and I’m also not trying to organize some kind of boycott. Me deciding not to give money to Apple is not going to do anything to their bottom line. But this is equivalent to me walking into Macy’s to buy a new wallet and the salesperson spits in my face. Chances are I won’t be buying my wallets at Macy’s anymore, no matter how much I like them. [...]

Speaking purely for myself, I would look to make it clear what is going through my mind at the moment. Go screw yourself Apple.

Thing is, with all those iPhones, iPads, and iPod touches out there, developers have no choice in the matter: toe the line with Apple or lose out on their payday.

This goes further, however. In addition to the above arguments, there's also the case to be made that Apple made this decision because it also puts a halt to cross-compiling for those developers trying to develop for iPhone, Android, webOS, whatever, easily. This shoots that in the foot, if the clause is being interpreted properly.

Of course, Apple is a corporation. It's supposed to maximize the value of its shares for its shareholders.

In effect, it appears that the change is multi-pronged in its purpose. The real reason behind it is known only by Apple, so naturally this is all theory and speculation, but it's certainly made people pay attention.

Here's the full text of Brimelow's post:

[Adobe would like me to make it clear that the opinions below are not the official views of the company and are entirely my own.]

By now you have surely heard about the new iPhone 4.0 SDK language that appears to make creating applications in any non-Apple-approved languages a violation of terms. Obviously Adobe is looking into this wording carefully so I will not comment any further until there is an official conclusion.

[Sentence regarding Apple's intentions redacted at request from Adobe]. This has nothing to do whatsoever with bringing the Flash player to Apple’s devices. That is a separate discussion entirely. 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. This is a frightening move that has no rational defense other than wanting tyrannical control over developers and more importantly, wanting to use developers as pawns in their crusade against Adobe. This does not just affect Adobe but also other technologies like Unity3D.

I am positive that there are a large number of Apple employees that strongly disagree with this latest move. Any real developer would not in good conscience be able to support this. The trouble is that we will never hear their discontent because Apple employees are forbidden from blogging, posting to social networks, or other things that we at companies with an open culture take for granted.

Adobe and Apple has had a long relationship and each has helped the other get where they are today. The fact that Apple would make such a hostile and despicable move like this clearly shows the difference between our two companies. All we want is to provide creative professionals an avenue to deploy their work to as many devices as possible. We are not looking to kill anything or anyone. This would be like us putting something in our SDK to make it impossible for 3rd-party editors like FDT to work with our platform. I can tell you that we wouldn’t even think or consider something like that.

Many of Adobe’s supporters have mentioned that we should discontinue the Creative Suite products on OS X as a form of retaliation. Again, this is something that Adobe would never consider in a million years. We are not looking to abuse our loyal users and make them pawns for the sake of trying to hurt another company. What is clear is that Apple most definitely would do that sort of thing as is evidenced by their recent behavior.

Personally I will not be giving Apple another cent of my money until there is a leadership change over there. I’ve already moved most of my book, music, and video purchases to Amazon and I will continue to look elsewhere. Now, I want to be clear that I am not suggesting you do the same and I’m also not trying to organize some kind of boycott. Me deciding not to give money to Apple is not going to do anything to their bottom line. But this is equivalent to me walking into Macy’s to buy a new wallet and the salesperson spits in my face. Chances are I won’t be buying my wallets at Macy’s anymore, no matter how much I like them.

Now let me put aside my role as an official representative of Adobe for a moment as Speaking purely for myself, I would look to make it clear what is going through my mind at the moment. Go screw yourself Apple.

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