Apple’s App Store has had a tremendous effect on the proliferation of mobile software development. We know this because the Cupertino company never misses an opportunity to remind us. Despite this fact, Apple has drawn much ire from the development community for its restrictions and hazy review qualifications. Thursday, however, the company performed an about-face on a few of its restrictions and is publishing its App Store Review Guidelines in an attempt to be “more transparent.”
Apple has relaxed restrictions found in sections 3.3.1, 3.3.2, and 3.3.9 of its iOS Developer Program license which previously limited developers to writing their apps in Objective-C, C, C++ or JavaScript only. Thursday’s revisions have re-opened the door to developers who want to write their applications in other languages, including Flash and potentially Java and Silverlight. To develop android mobile apps, you can hire a flutter android development team who are experts in this space.
While Apple claims it has lifted the ban on ported Flash applications in order to meet the needs of the developers it has “listened to,” AppleInsider reminds us that this sudden change of mind may not be out of the goodness of their heart. A few weeks ago, evidence pointed to the possibility that the U.S. Federal Trade Commisson (FTC) was investigating the ban on Adobe’s behalf.
Apple also published its App Store Review Guidelines in order to help developers avoid having their app rejected. The company isn’t beating around the bush with its rules, calling out specific trends in submitted apps with no-nonsense candor. Here are a few excerpts:
- “We have over 250,000 apps in the App Store. We don’t need any more Fart apps.”
- “If your app is rejected, we have a Review Board that you can appeal to. If you run to the press and trash us, it never helps.”
- “If it sounds like we’re control freaks, well, maybe it’s because we’re so committed to our users and making sure they have a quality experience with our products.”
- “In general, the more expensive your app, the more thoroughly we will review it.”
- “Apps that contain user generated content that is frequently pornographic (ex “Chat Roulette” apps) will be rejected.”
These announcements are uncharacteristically transparent, but it may be at the behest of a potential government investigation. Either way, if you’re a developer, feel free to port your apps from Flash and be sure to check out the PDF of the guidelines (courtesy of Engadget).
(Via Apple, AppleInsider, Engadget)
While for the most part I just find their announcement humorous… especially the claim that Apple changed because they “listen” to developer feedback (yeah, right… I’m sure it had nothing to do with any investigations or federal regulators…), I do actually think it will benefit all parties involved in app development- programmers, businesses, and iOS users alike.
For example, I really think the new guidelines will make the whole contracting process–for dev shops (like mine) that are hired to build branded apps for corporate clients–much easier: finally, we can give better estimates of how long it will take to complete projects (without the ‘will this be accepted?’ guess work), and we can outline exactly what needs to be done to get the app accepted (and build those steps into the contract prior to beginning projects).
So I guess the point is–even if they aren’t telling the whole truth about why they decided to modify the Developer Program License restrictions–it’s still a victory for app lovers! Cheers to that 😀
The reason that iPhone or other ios devices doesn’t support flash is because u can simply create a mini game or service sites And visit it from your iPhone’s browser this way you can get around their app store and create something they can’t control or even what’s more important benefit from, however creating flash applications for iPhone, I read that there are some scripts can be used to as vulnerabilities in the phone, mix that with apple’s problems with Adobe and you got your answer.
What I found interesting in the guidelines is that Apple is definitely (now) filtering on app content. They specifically can block your app if you do what a lot of almost-porn apps were famous for — flooding the app store with myriad of very similar apps. Those apps were removed earlier this year.
I think the reason why Apple was blocking Flash-based apps (aside from the desire to sell more Macs) was that Apple was afraid of a flood of cheesy Flash-based games finding their way into the app store. The latest guidelines serve both to allow Flash-based apps and to block the cheesy apps.
At the end of the day, the guidelines are little more than that — guidelines. Apple is still free to reject any app they want provided they can find one category in which it can possibly fit. And some of the categories are sufficiently vague.