It is no secret that Apple has it out for Adobe’s Flash technology. In spite of public outcry for the iPhone OS to support Flash, Apple has thumbed its nose and refused to do so. Steve Jobs stated emphatically at today’s press event that the iPhone would never support Flash. Bad blood, that’s not in question. Apple released the SDK for iPhone OS 4 today, and the developer’s agreement proves beyond a shadow of a doubt how much the company hates Adobe.
I spoke with Adobe in February and they were understandably proud of a cross-compiler that takes Flash code and produces native iPhone apps. These apps could then be submitted to the App Store to be released on the iPhone, a platform that had previously not been available to Flash developers. This sounded like a pretty good way to do an end around Apple and get Flash apps on the iPhone. That hope died today.
Our friends at NewTeeVee point to the new iPhone Developer License Agreement for iPhone 4 that was released today, specifically some language that sure looks like it’s aimed squarely at Adobe:
3.3.1 — Applications may only use Documented APIs in the manner prescribed by Apple and must not use or call any private APIs. Applications must be originally written in Objective-C, C, C++, or JavaScript as executed by the iPhone OS WebKit engine, and 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).
Now I’m no lawyer nor do I play one on NewTeeVee but this is pretty damning for the Adobe tool for producing iPhone apps. That last sentence alone pretty much kills it. Adobe hasn’t even gotten the tool officially released yet but I guess it’s dead in the water.
Related content on GigaOM Pro: Can Anyone Compete With the iPad?

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