Quote:
Originally Posted by FanIn80
I'm confused. How would iPhone apps not be OS-specific, even without the "no-3rd-party-dev-tools" clause?
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Cross-compiling apps means that the same app can run on multiple OSes. You build it the app once and some tool (like MonoTouch or Adobe's new Flash CS5 feature) will compile that app for iPhone, Android and whatever else. This is what Apple bans in the new EULA.
The general thinking is that by forcing developers to decide between coding the app exclusively for iPhone OS (ie no cross-compiling), compiling for everyone else except Apple with cross-compiling or doing both, the majority of developers will chose to compile only for Apple. This is because the time, effort and money necessary to code the apps over again for non-Apple OSes or to code them exclusively for non-Apple OSes is not worthwhile being that Apple OS represents 95% of the market (or whatever the actual number is, I'm not sure) for mobile apps.