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In a rather unexpected move, Apple announced last week that it would relax its restrictions on the tools used by developers. In particular, the company reversed a ban that blocked Flash-derived apps, which garnered a predictable “cautiously optimistic” reaction from Adobe. (Shareholders seem to be slightly more confident.)
It’s no surprise that the parent of Flash is happy, but what about the companies doing the iOS app developing? Appnation, a brand-new conference designed to showcase mobile apps, seemed like the perfect place to find out. Yesterday, I hit up Moscone North conference center here in San Francisco to check out some apps firsthand and to talk to show exhibitors about their feelings surrounding Apple’s news.
As anticipated, the general sentiment from those developing apps for the iPhone is overwhelmingly positive. However, the level of happiness varies from the reserved enthusiasm we saw from Adobe to one vendor calling it a watershed moment for the mobile space. A certain amount of surprise at Apple’s newfound openness is another over-arching theme, but on the whole, developers are excited for any move toward making devices easier and better for consumers.
On the other side of things, I also talked to several companies that only create apps for the Android OS. They all seemed rather unaffected by the announcement and not at all threatened.
