Apple’s new developer rules (App Store Guidelines at Scribd) allow developers to create iPhone applications using cross-development platform tools. In April, Apple banned developers from using tools such as Adobe Creative Suite 5, which lets you create an application in Flash, and then port it to iPhone’s native language, Objective-C.
Apple also changed its mind on how ad networks can be integrated into apps, so Google’s AdMob is also back in.
Adobe said that Apple’s course reversal was “great news for developers” and that Adobe will now resume development of its CS5-iPhone feature. Adobe’s Packager for iPhone, a feature in the Flash Professional CS5 authoring tool, was created to enable Flash developers to quickly and easily deliver applications for iOS devices.
It does not change Apple’s policy of not supporting Flash-based content on the iPhone. Whether Apple will open the door to Adobe Flash for iOS remains to be seen.
Apple has been forced to compete with the rising tide of Android devices with less restictive policies.
In July, Google released its beta version of App Inventor for Android, a do-it-yourself kit to create an app to sell in Android’s marketplace. It meant for anyone, not just programmers. You can create an Android app using its building blocks and fill-in-the-blank forms.
Android devices will control largely half of the smartphone market, according to a Piper Jaffray report.
Research firm Gartner said today that Symbian and Android will dominate the mobile operating system market by 2014. In 2014, Gartner expects iOS to be third with 14.9 percent and BlackBerry OS to come in 4th, with just 11.7 percent of the mobile market.
Gartner expects that Symbian and Android together will account for 59.8 percent of the total worldwide mobile OS market by 2014, split almost equally–Symbian with 30.2 percent, and Android with 29.6 percent.
Apple is projected to sell 130 million iOS-based mobile devices per year by 2014, as Android hits 259M, according to Gartner. Gartner also sees Microsoft’s Windows Phone relegated to sixth place, behind the MeeGo platform created by Intel and Nokia.
Of course, four years is a long time, notes C/Net. Yesterday, Nokia announced a new CEO, Stephen Elop, president of Microsoft’s Business Division. Nokia said that Elop will help lead its “substantial transformation” from a hardware company to a software company.
Forrester advices enterprises how to get started in mobile enterprise development. Read/Write Web has a brief guide to tools for mobilizing the work force.
- MobileIron has a Virtual Smartphone Platform 3.0, with an API to use MobileIron’s device management platform to build their own mobile enterprise applications.
- Leapfactor has a new cloud-based mobile enterprise application platform that helps enterprises build single purpose apps that connect with existing enterprise software platforms. It interfaces with SAP or Oracle ERP system.
- Couch One Mobile is the new mobile app development platform from CouchDB. Developers can easily write web applications one time, scale vertically and share data and applications across the computing platforms and mobile devices.
- DragonRad from Seregon is a cross-platform enterprise-focused mobile application development platform launching at BlackBerry DevCon 2010 this month. DragonRad provides a drag and drop environment for app creation
- Rhomobile, a Ruby-based cross-platform enterprise application development platform makes it easier to create mobile apps that work with enterprise applications with custom databases.
