Apple May Face Antitrust Scrutiny By FTC, DoJ For Developer Agreement

nypost.com:

After years of being the little guy who used Washington to fend off Goliaths like Microsoft, Apple CEO Steve Jobs is about to learn what life is like when the shoe's on the other foot.

According to a person familiar with the matter, the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission are locked in negotiations over which of the watchdogs will begin an antitrust inquiry into Apple's new policy of requiring software developers who devise applications for devices such as the iPhone and iPad to use only Apple's programming tools.

Read the whole story: nypost.com

Comments

[peaceonearth]

01:31 AM on 05/04/2010

I had planned on porting my flash-based math courseware (animated, no hoggy videos!) to the iPad via the Adobe CS5 iphone packager. So am I ever cheering this antitrust suit on!!!!!!!

[floodberg]

02:16 PM on 05/04/2010

Sorry to reply here; I'm responding to your cats and the toy piano on the IPad thread (I missed your reply, sorry). I got a cheap, mechanical piano for a friend's child (with paw sized keys), but my cats loved it, so I bought another for the gift. That was 10 years ago, and they 'play' daily, and are totally engrossed in it; it's vastly preferably to the AI mouse I got them. One plays for about 30 minutes, the other watches; then the parties switch for the evening concert. I just had to replace the first. (Don't get a powered one, you'll have to turn it on and off or change batteries.) If you can find one in a charity store, that's a good way to start, and it's 'recycled' fun. My boys aren't prodigies, but I rather like listening while I work.

[peaceonearth]

05:39 PM on 05/04/2010

Thanks so much, that's awesome!!!! I'll start looking around. Who knows, I may discover one of my 4 kitties is a maestro. Can't wait to tell my friends with the 18 cats. They would have to get several of them, wow they'd have a whole kitty symphony. What a shame that the musical talents of so many kitties go untapped because people don't know about this. Me and my kitties thank you very kindly!!!!

[DRaymond]

07:42 PM on 05/03/2010

The developer agreement is only the tip of the iceberg for Apple's anticompetitive practices, but it is an important one because it is at the top of the chain.

But the real solution to Apple's anticompetitive practice is that they be forced to license their Fairplay protection system to third party developers.

Licensing Fairplay would allow other stores besides iTunes to be able to sell protected content for iPod/Phone/Pad. Developers would have a choice of selling through outlets that don't have to pay Apple a fee or submit to Apple's censorship. Customers would be able to buy apps that Jobs doesn't want to sell.

Even better for consumers would be that licensing Fairplay would mean that an iPod/Pad/Phone owner would NOT be locked into buying their next device from Apple or lose all their iTunes purchased content.

[peaceonearth]

01:22 AM on 05/04/2010

Excellent!!!! What Apple is doing, would be like having a requirement that all the software on your computer be pre-approved by the manufacturer of your computer. Fanned.

[JasonMcl]

07:24 AM on 05/04/2010

This is a brilliant solution. Does Fairplay cover apps as well? I thought it was just their DRM.

Would still be a great start.

[hypnotoad72]

04:57 PM on 05/03/2010

This is worth repeating:

If a browser sandboxes its components, the security risk is reduced with Flash or other applets.

Apple is being a HYPOCRITE with their disingenuous "open standards" claims. Why? because they are locking in developers to Objective-C (a language that came about in 1986, long before Flash and yet people only say that "Flash is so old it's a dinosaur"), banning 3rd party apps (including Unity3D), and iPhone development can only be done on a Mac. What's that about open standards again, Mr. Lock-in Steve?

HTML5 is nice, but you still need CSS and JavaScript. Let's forget about the added dino of Objective-C, all of the browser companies all tinker with HTML, CSS, and JS to suit their own whims. That won't change at all.

And with Microsoft now joining Apple, why do the big boys want to axe a (comparatively) small vendor? Fear of innovation on their part? Kick 'em while they're perceived as being down?

What's going on reeks of anti-competitiveness and the FCC needs to be called in at this point. Apple's hypocrisy is too obvious for even them to overlook.

More info on purported performance and other claims:

http://www.mikechambers.com/blog/2010/04/20/on-adobe-flash-cs5-and-iphone-applications/

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/does_html5_really_beat_flash_surprising_results_of_new_tests.php

[JasonMcl]

03:22 PM on 05/03/2010

Bad times for a bad company.

Apple used to push Antitrust enforcement all over Microsoft back in the day. Remember the whole Internet Explorer integration debate in windows?

Well now Apple is completely shutting out anything that competes with any of their included apps on the iPhone and iPad. Not even at Microsoft's worst did they ever think to deliberately ban applications from windows. Imagine how much worse the lawsuit would have been if they acted like Apple and directly shut out all competition.

This will be an interesting case indeed.

[mjb5406]

10:40 PM on 05/03/2010

What other companies do is, to Apple, evil UNTIL Apple does it themselves.

[iamvalid]

10:59 PM on 05/03/2010

No really. Apple along with the open source cowards at BSD have set the FOSS movement back to square one. How long before Apple just declares Linux their own closed platform.

[CaptD]

11:14 AM on 05/03/2010

By limiting the tools used, Apple will also keep control of "problems" resulting from "other" tools.

The One BIG reason that Apple is so great is that they do not have all the problems associated with platforms like "Windows, Windows Mobile, Windows CE, Windows Embedded, whatever...".

[mjb5406]

12:00 PM on 05/03/2010

To put it in a short phrase: BS. Crappy code is crappy code. A person can write DoS (Denial of Service) programs, trojans, viruses and other malware using Apple's tools just as easily. There is nothing magic about Xcode and the iPhone SDK other than, by requiring their use, Apple is shutting down any attempt to produce cross-platform apps. Your argument is incredibly weak, and demonstrates a complete lack of understanding about programming.

And "Apple is so great" is the obvious bleating of a fanboy sheep.

[CaptD]

12:21 PM on 05/03/2010

So in your words I'm a "fan boy sheep", If that is your logic, then I guess that makes you a what, a "PC fanboy sheep"?

I think name calling is poor blogging and just because I think that Apple has a right to limit it's developers, I don't think it's fair to get "fanboy sheep'd",
besides it's in Baaaaaaaad taste:-).

[hypnotoad72]

05:02 PM on 05/03/2010

Why doesn't Apple ban all 3rd party applications from its Macs? Everyone whines "Photoshop and Flash crash on the Mac, waaaaah!"

Why isn't Apple brave enough to make its own competition to Photoshop and others? They refuse to sell certain Adobe CS4 suites in their Apple Stores because those Adobe bundles versions compete with Apple's own competition. What's Apple afraid of that I'm looking at Adobe's answer to Final Cut Pro, eh?

I used to believe the "Apple will also keep control of 'problems'" shtick, but these days it's a pallid, transparent excuse.

There is no way Apple would survive scrutiny by the FCC.

http://www.mikechambers.com/blog/2010/04/20/on-adobe-flash-cs5-and-iphone-applications/
(I love that guy's mindset, and he's right)

[mjb5406]

10:38 PM on 05/03/2010

And, btw, fanned.

[mjb5406]

10:30 AM on 05/03/2010

I can't say I'm surprised... Jobs' narcissism may finally get him in trouble. No matter what you say about Microsoft, they have never insisted developers use only Microsoft-provided tools to develop for their platforms (Windows, Windows Mobile, Windows CE, Windows Embedded, whatever). Jobs' statement that this will "insure the quality of iPhone/iPad apps" is such a bald-faced lie it's not even funny; if you look at their entire app approval process, it's APPLE that is supposed to insure the quality of the app through its review. The manner in which you develop an application does not at all dictate the quality of the finished product (I am a programmer, so I know). You can write great and crappy apps in any programming language, so insisting you use XCode and the iPhone SDK exclusively is meaningless with regards to the end product; it's not like there's a "make my app great" menu selection that magically fixes everything. Apple will continue rejecting apps for no sound reason, regardless of how they are created. But the fanboys will, of course, disagree.

[hypnotoad72]

05:05 PM on 05/03/2010

Apple also says they disallow products that have duplicate functionality. Well, never mind Opera (which duplicates Safari functionality), I've seen two games that are essentially the same thing. Rotix and Chroma Circuit. Rotix has 4 sides, Chroma Circuit has 3 sides. The underlying philosophy is identical.

Never mind the hell developers have to go through when putting up updates. PocketInformat, a PIM that Apple refuses to let hook into the iPhone calendar, they had accidentally put out a bug. PocketInformant was quickly patched, but Apple sat around for DAYS before pushing out the fix. Note to PocketInformant: Android is the future. Apple is becoming too draconian. And it's a shame.

[mjb5406]

10:38 PM on 05/03/2010

I agree... Android IS the future, which is why my phone is an HTC Hero!