Hacker News Reader

Comment by cm2187 | Hacker News Reader

How long before Apple kicks them out of the apple store? I thought Apple always had a policy of limited tolerance toward xamarin (after having banned them once). Isn't them becoming MSFT a casus belli?

View on HN

My understanding is that Apple's issue was with dynamic runtimes and that Xamarin developed a statically compiled Mono runtime to comply with Apple's guidelines. The ground between definitions of "static/dynamic" eventually was sorted out.

Its Google which logger heads with Microsoft. Microsoft and Apple generally get along. Heck, for IPad Pro announcement Microsoft Office was featured on the stage.

Apple is quite protective with its app store.

Apple is the market leader, which means they have the most to lose with Xamarin commoditizing the different mobile devices. MS, as the clear loser, has by far the most to gain.

Which is why I expect MS to make Xamarin available for free, and push it quite heavily.

Market leader in what sense?

Zero; it won't happen. Apple's stance has been stated and unchanging for years now. Statically compiled frameworks like Xamarin are fine. Interpreters are fine if the app ships with the code (no dynamic patching by downloading new code) or if the code is part of a reviewed/approved in app purchase. For JavaScript you also have access to the native code JIT too.

The only thing you can't do is issue new code by bypassing App Review (except web pages / web apps) or have your own non-sandboxed JIT.

What happens if you download new javascript code and use that to control your app?

If Apple actually does it, they won't like the results of being under an anti-trust investigation.

They could have succeeded against Xamarin, but not Microsoft Legal.

There are already a number of platforms to build iOS apps that Apple have done nothing about, Titanium, Cordova, Adobe, Xamarin, Phonegap.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com