Apple allows the use of third party development tools for mobile apps

Earlier this year Apple caused furor amongst the developer community, by preventing mobile applications developed for their successful iOS devices, including the iPhone and iPad, from being approved for sale in the Apple App Store when developed with third party tools.

The company is now relaxing those restrictions, saying "We are continually trying to make the App Store even better. We have listened to our developers and taken much of their feedback to heart. Based on their input, today we are making some important changes to our iOS Developer Program license in sections 3.3.1, 3.3.2 and 3.3.9 to relax some restrictions we put in place earlier this year."

Under the new rules, those restrictions on third party development tools are no longer in place, as long as the resulting apps do not download any code.

Apple comments were "This should give developers the flexibility they want, while preserving the security we need."

In addition, the company is also for the first time publishing the App Store Review Guidelines to help developers understand how the submitted apps review process works.

The App Store has over 250,000 apps and so far 6.5 billion downloads, the world’s largest mobile application platform. Apple says App Store developers have earned over one billion dollars from the sales of their apps.