For some time I’ve been closely watching the Titanium product developed by Appcelerator. The desktop version allows the development of applications with hooks into the native APIs for OSX, Linux or Windows. Development is possible in a raft of languages including web paradigms such as PHP/Javascript. The same approach works for the mobile version, which allows the developer to code once and produce output for the iPhone and Android, with Blackberry and the iPad on the way (and no doubt others still to come). It’s a powerful abstraction.

Around Easter I received an email message from Appcelerator CEO Jeff Haynie intended to reassure Titanium users prior to Steve Jobs announcement that only native development would be acceptable for iPhone 4.0. Reading it, I immediately leapt fearlessly to the conclusion that the J-Boy was about to outlaw development abstraction, a prediction which – for once – turned out to be the case a few days later.

A further missive from Appcelerator’s Jeff Haynie arrived today. It tenders the company’s belief that Titanium and similar development toolsets will not be impacted by the iPhone 4.0 restrictions; that Steve Jobs is specifically targeting Flash; that good products such as Titanium, and their large and growing development communities, have nothing to be concerned about.

Sadly, on this occasion I think Jeff is wrong: Apple has more than one reason for their announcement. I suspect Titanium will find itself at the sharp end of this divide and conquer strategy. I can’t imagine Steve Jobs passing up the opportunity to prevent killer apps for the iPhone being simultaneously rolled out as killer apps for competing platforms. I think his message about using native tools meant exactly what it said, and developers will find Titanium-based offerings for iPhone 4.0 summarily rejected. Personally I think that’s cynical and very sad.

Like Microsoft in the days when it thought it ruled the world, Mr Jobs will not find it easy to maintain that position over time. Nonetheless, at the moment it will certainly be successful in the community of web entrepreneurs who have until now supported Titanium and similar products. Indeed it will doubtless mean the end of the road for some of the companies offering these products.

I continue to use Entourage, a previous Appcelerator product, even though they’ve effectively stopped supporting it. I’ve customised it to a considerable extent now too, fixed bugs and fairly much have it working as I want. Similarly, I don’t suppose anything really stops me using Titanium in the future even if it should be orphaned. But I hope like hell that doesn’t happen. The web needs open technologies; the future is convergence and interoperability, not closed shop silos.