Apple could change terms 3.3.1 to avoid probe, says insider
The mothership’s enemies (a.k.a. Adobe) have called in their political chits to get this far, generating a lot of noise and smoke. Nevertheless, there’s no certainty there will be an investigation as Apple’s far from being a monopoly.
Wall Street Journal reports that the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice, the two agencies charged with enforcing antitrust, are mulling over which will investigate Apple over its ban on the use of Flash to create iPhone OS apps. It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to guess who’s sparked the government’s interest.
People familiar with the matter said the latest interest from regulators was triggered by complaints from Apple competitors and application developers over the terms of company’s agreement with iPhone and iPad app developers.
Of course, Adobe’s at the top of the list of Apple enemies, but mobile ad placement and tracking companies also have an axe to grind.
Whereas a layman’s understanding of antitrust leaves me scratching my head vis-a-vis Adobe, the feds or anyone making the case that Apple’s exclusion of Flash is a monopolistic practice, I believe critics and regulators may have more luck finding fault with iAds, Cupertino’s nascent mobile advertising service.
That is, although some developers might prefer to use Flash, they aren’t prevented from creating iPhone, iPod touch and iPad apps. However, Apple’s iAd terms, which may be technically unenforceable, lock out third-party mobile advertising networks and block developers for collecting user data with Cupertino keeping all of that power and revenue for itself.
That seems a lot more problematic, morally and legally, than Adobe and its noisome infestation of Flash craplet developers.
Perhaps the easy way out here is for Apple to give in on iAds, a possibility put forward by at least one industry insider.
What would you suggest?
Related Posts:
May 6th, 2010
Disallowing third-party programming tools is just as problematic, morally. Companies have invested millions and millions of dollars developing and depending on third party tools (NOT Flash). Flash is just something on top of that. Trashing all of this stuff is a huge destruction. Is Apple in the destruction business now?