[jonKranked]

Big Brother Jobs might have landed himself in hot water with the new coding policies....

Apple's decision to block third-party toolkits and middleware -- particularly Flash -- from being used to develop iPhone and iPad apps has certainly prompted a fair amount of debate around the web, and now it sounds like Steve and the gang might face some even harsher scrutiny: a single-sourced piece in the New York Post reports that the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice are currently tussling over which agency should be tasked with a potential antitrust inquiry into the matter. That would certainly make some noise in the industry, but it doesn't mean much for those of us here in reality quite yet: assuming the report is true, an inquiry would still just be the very first step -- whichever agency is ultimately put in charge would then have to launch a formal investigation and then finally file and win a lawsuit for any changes to occur. That's a timeframe measured in months, if not years.

All that said, we can see why the feds are interested: Apple's slowly moving into an ever-more dominant position in the mobile market, and forcing developers to make a hard choice about which platforms to target certainly puts the squeeze on competitors. We'll be following this one closely -- stay tuned.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/03/apple-to-face-antitrust-inquiry-over-iphone-coding-restrictions/

 

[4xBoy]

But but they are the little guys fighting the evil big corporations.

 

[jonKranked]

But but they are the little guys fighting the evil big corporations.

Not anymore, Jon Stewart called them out on that.

 

[IH8Rice]

why would they be investigated?? if someone doesnt like their rules to develop software on their product, go elsewhere.....or am i missing something here?

 

[binary visions]

why would they be investigated?? if someone doesnt like their rules to develop software on their product, go elsewhere.....or am i missing something here?

That's like saying, if someone doesn't like the integration of Internet Explorer into Windows, they can always use Linux. While it's a true statement, it's not necessarily a valid choice.

Dominant players in the market need to make careful choices about deliberately and blatantly squelching competition.

 

[$tinkle]

Dominant players in the market need to make careful choices about deliberately and blatantly squelching competition.

not intentionally being a dick, but what about "all's fair in love & war"? is apple now too big to succeed?

if i want to sell more tats, i'll lease a whole strip mall just outside an army post if that means you can't lease out store front inconvenient to me

i get price-fixing, cartels, racketeering, & price-gouging, but this seems like simply more restrictions on the free market. i guess you could say i see it like this: Provision would break up nine biggest banks

the closest thing i could see sticking them with is "refusal to deal", and perhaps that may not be such a stretch.

 

[IH8Rice]

That's like saying, if someone doesn't like the integration of Internet Explorer into Windows, they can always use Linux. While it's a true statement, it's not necessarily a valid choice.

Dominant players in the market need to make careful choices about deliberately and blatantly squelching competition.

its not like there arent any other choices besides the iphone/ipad for a company to develop software for.

for computers there are really only 3..windows, linux and any mac OS. in the cell phone market, there a few more than 3 choices.

if they are "investigated" i can guarantee nothing will happen

 

[jonKranked]

its not like there arent any other choices besides the iphone/ipad for a company to develop software for.

for computers there are really only 3..windows, linux and any mac OS. in the cell phone market, there a few more than 3 choices.

if they are "investigated" i can guarantee nothing will happen

if you can't understand why this is a potential anti-trust issue, then any "guarantee" you can claim is hard to take seriously.

There are some parallels between this situation and vertical integration



edit: I suspect that the anti-trust aspect of this may or may not concern the use of and limitation specific coding languages as a means to prevent developers from easily porting their code for several mobile platforms.

 

[IH8Rice]

if you can't understand why this is a potential anti-trust issue, then any "guarantee" you can claim is hard to take seriously.

this will not fall under any anti-trust laws and that will become evident when they "investigate" them.
and as you said, this is a "potential" issue

 

[jonKranked]

some more info:

Regulators, this person said, are days away from making a decision about which agency will launch the inquiry. It will focus on whether the policy, which took effect last month, kills competition by forcing programmers to choose between developing apps that can run only on Apple gizmos or come up with apps that are platform neutral, and can be used on a variety of operating systems, such as those from rivals Google, Microsoft and Research In Motion.

...


In forcing computer programmers to choose developing an Apple-exclusive app over one that can be used on Apple and rival devices simultaneously, critics say Apple is hampering competition since the expense involved in creating an app will lead developers with limited budgets to focus on one format, not two. Generally, app developers are paid from a cut of the revenue generated when consumers buy the app.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/an_antitrust_app_buvCWcJdjFoLD5vBSkguGO

 

[binary visions]

for computers there are really only 3..windows, linux and any mac OS. in the cell phone market, there a few more than 3 choices.

Really?

The smartphone market has RIM, Palm, Apple, Google and Microsoft. That's two more choices. The only two players who are getting big-time app development are iPhone OS and Android - the rest are absolute peanuts in comparison.

I'd argue that there are fewer choices to app developers on mobile platforms. At best, you have the same principle choices: two large communities of app development (for computers, it's Windows and Apple - for phones, it'd be Android and Apple). And the company that has far and away the market lead in terms of app development is now nailing down access to their system.

I don't really agree with it. I just think the why is fairly evident.

 

[AngryMetalsmith]

Jobs is using the argument that standards based development is more accessible and open to developers than a proprietary tool like Adobe Flash. Jobs is talking about using html5, CSS3 and javascript for app development. The combination of the three is nothing new to web designers. In fact, there is a growing movement for web standards that skews Flash altogether. While this may be valid, unless I'm mistaken, html5 and CSS3 are still a ways off from being fully implemented. So in essence Apple is attempting to limit the competition and shape the future of app development. This of course has made Adobe very nervous.

Web designers and developers have been free to use whatever they want, and many are advocating practices that are moving away from Flash. I suspect this will be one of the key arguing points in any forth comming investigation.

 

[jonKranked]

another article:

Apple changed its iPhone developers agreement last month to prohibit the use of cross-platform development tools, such as Flash. The change precludes iPhone app developers from making one universal app that can be ported to a variety of mobile App Stores. The iPhone's popularity could make developers reluctant to work on other platforms instead, so a federal inquiry would look at whether Apple's behavior is anticompetitive.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/195444/feds_eye_apple_for_antitrust_probe.html

 

[jonKranked]

some more info .... the whole iAd platform seems to be part of the inquiry as well:

and the second is Apple's new iAd platform, which comes with its own changes to the iPhone developer agreement that could potentially lock out third-party ad and analytics services like AdMob

http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/04/wsj-confirms-apple-under-preliminary-antitrust-investigation-ove/

 

[$tinkle]

As a stockholder, I KNOW they haven't been far off any mark before....I trust Jobs and his team, they know exactly what they're doing. We need to get over Flash anyway.

hmmm...and as a stockholder of BP, i say "drill, baby, drill!"

why do we "need to get over Flash anyway"?

 

[jonKranked]

why do we "need to get over Flash anyway"?

Cuz Steve Jobs said so durr!