With iPhone OS 4.0, Apple has officially turned into an evil tyranny

If Apple was a carmaker, an Apple car would look like this :

• its wheels, windshield, wipers would only be Apple's authorized ones -- ok, for security reasons, we understand this
• all the luggage or strollers you put in the trunk could only be Apple's approved models, sold through their shops

This is the current situation on your iPhone and iPod. Not a model of freedom!
But with iPhone OS 4.0, things are getting worse:

• providers of wheels, wipers or strollers have to throw away their factory machines and buy Apple ones.

I love my iPhone, and I sincerely think that my MacBook is great hardware.
But freedom is more important than business or convenience.

To sum up the story of Apple's last SDK (software development kit), Apple has published new legal conditions along their iPhone OS 4.0, especially the paragraph 3.3.1, which, in plain english, has the following consequences:

1. Apple forbids any editor to issue an intermediary tool that can be used for iPhone app development, especially the libraries that ease cross-platform development (you write your code once, it works on iPhone, Android, Blackberry, etc.)
2. Adobe was supposed to release its Studio CS5 on April 10, that accomplishes exactly this - write once in Flash, deploy everywhere. This is undoubtedly an evil anti-competitive move from Apple.
3. Other editors are harmed, for instance Unity Technologies that could die because of that.

Even on the worst days of Microsoft anti-competitive practices, they never went that far. They never forbid an application to run on their platform, as Apple has done with Adobe Flash or Google Voice.
Remember how angrily people were shouting at Microsoft at that time, for far less than what Apple is doing now.

I'm an iPhone fan and I often tout the merits of the device to my friends. I will not anymore. I cannot promote a dictatorship.

I am shocked, Apple went beyond any acceptable limit. This is a question of freedom. And I want a free world for my kids, not the walls Apple is building around us.

What will be next ?

People that Apple does not like will be banished? 

People that criticize Steve Jobs will be deleted from Apple's world? 

People that have not the good political views will be chased down?

With a monopoly, this would be illegal. I consider iPhones as an almost-monopoly on high-end smartphones.

Fortunately, developers are rebels in nature. They hate orders and love freedom.

Apple development environment is old-fashioned and complex - proprietary language (Objective-C), incompatible with what most developer use, and on Mac only.

I think this will turn into a fantastic opportunity for Android, since they are very developer-friendly, run in Java, on Eclipse IDE.

Apple products may be magical, they are nothing but a magical jail.

Let's break the chains.

Change your mind Apple, don't try to format ours.

Update on video & video-conferencing

Google just announced that Adobe Flash will be built in Chrome 5, Google's homemade browser, natively.

At first glance, it could appear as a victory and the confirmation of Flash ubiquitous future.

However I think this is the high price paid by Adobe after being set aside by Apple in iPhones & iPads.
They have lost part of their autonomy, to survive Apple's slaughter. They had little choice.

Many websites have started restructuring their services without Flash. Thanks to Apple's stance, Google has been able to impose its conditions: integrate Flash plug-in deep into Chrome, which means taking control over it.

But this is also a high price paid by Apple for competing with Google on smartphones and future tablets.
The crisis burst into flammes when Apple rejected Google Voice application for iPhone.
Google was more on Apple's side at first, promoting HTML5, CSS, SVG & Javascript as a built-in replacement of Adobe Flash.

My analysis is that Google firmly believes that web standards built into the browser are the right solution (without Flash - I agree).
However they have with Flash a fantastic opportunity to boost their competitive advantages over iPhones & iPads.

In the meantime, this puts Apple in a difficult situation...
I look forward to seeing Apple's counter-attack, what a great suspens!!