Flash and the AppStore

I’m really getting the feeling that most people are missing the bigger unspoken point about Apple’s position on Flash: Apple does not want a revenue threat against their AppStore.

Anyone who knows anything about Flash knows that this isn’t about Flash but the development platform it uses. That platform is sophisticated enough so that a sophisticated Flex developer could easily build a fully functioning AppStore. The store could process credit card charges and deliver applications to the iPhone in a heartbeat.

That’s the main reason why “Flash” won’t appear on the iPhone. There’s only one AppStore and it’s Apple’s. It’s also why Apple doesn’t allow Cydia on the AppStore. It does everything that the AppStore does except give Apple a cut of the revenue.

I also don’t buy the argument around Flash and the “hover/mouseover” issues. An interaction design decision is enough to ban a piece of technology? That’s pretty amazing.

If Flash is the #1 reason why Macs crash, why is it allowed on the Mac OS? I would think that if Apple were really worried about it, it would be snuffed that out on the Mac long before the iPhone came out in 2007.

This is about disallowing a potential competing AppStore that would threaten a successful business model.