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Apple has said that the company is relaxing restrictions on the development tools which may be used to create iOS apps – paving the way for developers to use third party development tools.
Apple had previously banned all development tools and middleware such as the Unity game engine, allowing only the firm’s own Mac-based development tools to be used in the making of iOS applications.
"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," said Apple in a statement.
The move also paves the way for Adobe’s Flash Packager to be used to create applications, software which allows translation of Flash applications to iOS applications. Furthermore third-party advertising and analytics will also be possible such as Apple-rival Google’s AdMob service which gazumped Apple on acquiring and which subsequently ended up being banned in June.
The company also said that it would be publishing guidelines for the app store review process. This will be a welcome move to many developers that have complained about the opaque review process which can and has result in applications being blocked without the possibility of knowing in advance that Apple finds the content objectionable.
"Working together with our developers, we will continue to surprise and delight our users with innovative mobile apps."
And perhaps avoid further probes by anti competition watchdogs no doubt.
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