Jean-Louis Gassée on iPhone and Flash

Who, in his right mind, expects Steve Jobs to let Adobe (and other) cross-platform application development tools control his (I mean the iPhone OS) future? Cross-platform tools dangle the old “write once, run everywhere” promise. But, by being cross-platform, they don’t use, they erase “uncommon” features. To Apple, this is anathema as it wants apps developers to use, to promote its differentiation. It’s that simple. Losing differentiation is death by low margins. It’s that simple. It’s business. Apple is right to keep control of its platform’s future.

via mondaynote.com

That’s it, exactly. It’s yet another episode of API wars, played out on the battlefield of differentiation.

This is why try to avoid running “cross platform” apps on my Mac - they often don’t work right. Design isn’t about what something looks like, it’s about how it works.