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Apple relaxes third-party iOS development restrictions
Sean Fallon
Apple has relaxed restrictions on third-party development tools said that it will publish its app review guidelines
Apple runs the world's leading mobile application store
Published on Sep 9, 2010
Out of the blue, Apple has decided to relax restrictions on third-party development tools and finally publish a set of solid App Store Review Guidelines.
We are continually trying to make the App Store even better. We have listened to our developers and taken much of their feedback to heart. Based on their input, today we are making some important changes to our iOS Developer Program license in sections 3.3.1, 3.3.2 and 3.3.9 to relax some of the restrictions we put in place earlier this year.
In particular, we are relaxing all restrictions on the development tools used to create iOS apps, as long as the resulting apps do not download any code. This should give developers the flexibility they want, while preserving the security we need.
In addition, for the first time we are publishing the App Store Review Guidelines to help developers understand how we review submitted apps. We hope it will make us more transparent and help our developers create even more successful apps for the App Store.
Apple may be feeling the heat from competition with Android, and may have opened the door for a bit of backpedaling on Adobe Flash CS5.
At any rate, these are moves that needed to happen in order to keep developers delivering innovative apps. It will also be interesting to see the analysis of the app review guidelines in the coming days and weeks. Hopefully Apple will continue the trend towards openness there as well.
