There may be a very good reason why Apple has placed restrictions on what tools and languages iPhone developers may use: It doesn't want anyone else between it and its developers. Remember CodeWarrior? It was once the leading compiler for Mac PowerPC applications. Motorola, which manufacturered the CPUs, bought the compiler. When Apple made the jump from PowerPC to Intel hardware, Motorola struck back by refusing to port the compiler.

Consequently, Apple did not have a good compiler for its OS under 2-3 years later when it built Xcode and Proejct Builder. That lapse of 2-3 years delaying the porting of popular applications including PhotoShop. It was a painful memory for Apple, a source told me. "The memory of other people between [it] and developers is something [it is] scared of."

Of course, there's more to it. Apple doesn't want its apps walking across the street to Android, so to speak. A cross-platform development platform would loosen the hold that iOS has on developers. Apple allows develpoers to write Web applications using just about any way that they would like, but the real action is in the App Store. The App Store is like a hot nightclub that everyone wants to be in; the Web is the public park across the street. Tailgate if you'd like, but you're not getting in.