The announcement of App Store rules clarification by Apple has been viewed with some cynicism by observers prompting many to suggest the once mighty Apple is now under severe threat from Google and it's Android smartphones.

Apple appear to have made a major u-turn by agreeing to relax the rules regarding which tools are used to develop applications for the iPhone. In a move seen to be a direct snub to Adobe, Apple had previously banned the use of code translation products which allowed developers to write programs for multiple platforms before re-compiling for the iPhone.

Despite these changes, Adobe Flash will still be unable for the iPhone.

Apple have been famously restrictive as to the programs they have allowed onto their App Store and many developers have had their creations rejected on an apparently arbitrary basis. Apple hope that these new clarifications of their decision-making process will encourage developers to continue to target their platform.

Other analysts have noted that Google Android, Apple's largest smartphone competitor has no such restirctions in place as to what developers can do with their platform. This freedom in and of itself is probably not what concerns Apple, but more like the fact that Google recorded an 886% increase in Android handsets sales in the past year. Apple's sales over the same period were up just 61%.

Despite the increase of Google's marketshare, Apple still remains the undisputed king of the smartphone market. For now anyway.