The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the FTC will continue to carefully scrutinize Apple’s actions despite its loosened policy towards third-party iOS compilers. The brouhaha started back in April when Apple announced its new terms of service for iOS 4 and included the now fateful statement:
only code written in C, C++, and Objective-C may compile and directly link against the Documented APIs (e.g., Applications that link to Documented APIs through an intermediary translation or compatibility layer or tool are prohibited)
The primary loser in this ban against third-party authoring tools was Adobe. Its newly launched Flash Professional Creative Suite 5 contained a dedicated packager for the iPhone that was now prohibited by Apple’s TOS. It was a major public setback for Adobe and it responded by suspending development on both this Packager application and Flash for the iPhone.
Shortly after this initial scuffle, both the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg reported that Abode filed a complaint with the FTC over this new Anti-flash policy. The FTC refused to comment but their investigation into the matter was all but confirmed in August after the FTC cited the “the Commission’s law enforcement activities” when it denied Wired access to Adobe’s 200-page filing.
Earlier this week, Apple reversed its decision towards third-party development tools and is welcoming apps developed with non-native code back into the App store. Apple also released an explicit set of app submission guidelines so developers know what criteria Apple uses when it approves or rejects applications.
The WSJ hints that this reversal by Apple is partly in response to this ongoing FTC investigation but other factors may be involved. The growing success of Android is putting the pressure on Apple and forcing it to soften its stance towards developers. The very public departure of some high-profile iPhone developers, including Joe Hewiit of Facebook, may have also played a part in this decision.
Whatever the reason, it is a significant about-face, especially when you consider the strong words of Steve Jobs when he defended the original ban back in April:
We know from painful experience that letting a third party layer of software come between the platform and the developer ultimately results in sub-standard apps and hinders the enhancement and progress of the platform.
Five months later, these third-party software tools are no longer a barrier between the platform and the developer and these supposedly sub-standard apps are again being accepted into the App store. It has been a good week for Google, Adobe, and Flash developers; not so good for Apple.
[Via the WSJ]