This is another short post about something that’s been floating around in my thoughts. It deals with the current Apple opposition to Flash-created iPhone native apps.
The main thought that I am basing my opinion on is this: “The best Flash-created app is likely to be better for the end-user than the worst XCode-created app.”
Why not give end-users more choice in apps? Sure there’s already a lot of choice there. But does it degrade the App Store to allow more apps in? Developers have been creating for the iPhone for 3 years. Flash development has been going on for 6 years. (ActionScript 2.0 was released with MX 2004) Flash devs have a huge head start in getting comfortable with the language and building a community. Though Flash may not be around forever, it’s here as a viable tool now, so why not use it? Sure, improvements in the intermediary layer (Flash cross-compiler) may lag, but there is substantial proof that you don’t need bleeding edge features to have a very popular or successful platform. (Twitter, Facebook, Hulu)
