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Earlier today, John Gruber broke the news that using meta frameworks like Adobe’s Flash-to-iPhone compiler and others like MonoTouch will be disallowed for apps that want to get through the App Store process:

3.3.1 — Applications may only use Documented APIs in the manner prescribed by Apple and must not use or call any private APIs. Applications must be originally written in Objective-C, C, C++, or JavaScript as executed by the iPhone OS WebKit engine, and only code written in C, C++, and Objective-C may compile and directly link against the Documented APIs (e.g., Applications that link to Documented APIs through an intermediary translation or compatibility layer or tool are prohibited).

While I have read many arguments about Job’s hatred for Flash and their concern that it would flood the app store with sub-standard apps, my beef is not with Apple’s rejection of Flash for content. If they feel Flash is buggy and should not be allowed for content consumption in Safari, that’s fine with me (though I disagree with them).

However, when Apple forces developers to write apps in Objective-C which in my opinion is a confusing, mediocre and much too verbose language, I can’t help but feel that Apple is kicking their developers in the teeth. If it wasn’t for the iPhone developers, Apple would not enjoy the consumer appeal of the wide range of apps that exist in the App Store today. The iPhone developers have helped Apple become a leader in the smartphone 3rd-party app store segment, far above their competitors. And Apple repays them by insisting that developers code in a very specific set of languages?

It’s amazing to me how far Apple has come from their “Think Different” appeal in the 80s – when standing up to Big Blue and Microsoft by claiming “openness” (well, Steve Wozniack did, not Steve Jobs), they now epitomize the essence of who they were standing up against. They are making it mandatory to not only follow their arcane and flaky App store processes, but insisting on using their coding languages, standards and processes seems incredulous. Apple, why don’t you embrace “openness” and allow meta frameworks to compile to your language of choice? You still control the platform, the language and the process. Why are you screwing the very developers who have stood by you through thick and thin to contribute to making the iPhone the success it is today.

Please Apple, please change your stance and give developers a break.