MacDailyNews Note: Please see: Apple faces U.S. antitrust investigation over iPhone OS programming tool requirements? – May 03, 2010
Elmer-DeWitt reports, “As the Post sees it, the new policy ‘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.'”
MacDailyNews Take: The operative words above? “As the Post sees it.” The NY Post. On their next page they probably see flying saucers helmed by Pamela Anderson fembots mooring atop the Empire State Building.
Elmer-DeWitt writes, “To win a Sherman Antitrust case against Apple, the government would have to prove both that Apple’s market share constitutes a monopoly — itself not illegal — and that it has abused that monopoly power in ways that damage its competition. While it is true that Apple controls what apps can run on its mobile devices and even what tools developers can use to write those apps, it’s going to be harder to show that it has a monopoly of the smartphone market or that its competitors have been harmed…”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Much ado about nothing.
“U.S. vs. Apple: Who would win?”
Apple
@MDN:
<i>The NY Post. On their next page they probably see flying saucers helmed by Pamela Anderson fembots mooring atop the Empire State Building.<i>
What has happened to the Post? The fembot story should have been on the front page!
This is silly.
Nothing is stopping developers from using Flash. They just can’t use Flash to develop apps for Apple devices.
They are free to do so on other devices…
…if there were other devices even CAPABLE of running Flash.
How is this any different than from companies making applications only for Windows and not the Mac platform?
If you have declared Marxists in the government, tyranny is just around the corner.
There are NO platform neutral apps, whether you’re talking about desktop systems, mobile systems, or otherwise. All have their own distinct, separate GUIs, core technologies, etc.
I can’t take a head gasket for a Chevy and bolt it onto my BMW. That doesn’t stop anyone from making replacement parts for either, they just have to use different dies and tools to make the part.
Apple isn’t barring anyone from developing for the iPhone OS, it’s just requiring the use of certain tools so that the product fits the OS.
If they can’t nail Microsoft for pushing their proprietary DirectX instead of OpenGL, they sure can’t touch Apple.
If Apple’s competitors are being harmed, it’s solely because they’re making shitty, disingenuous products.
Apple doesn’t allow apps that run on its devices to sell products through it without taking a piece of the profits. example Kindle app can’t sell book for you ipad directly in the app without giving a piece of the profits to apple.
That is not marketing that is abuse of a monopoly.
For Microsoft you can sell software for windows without giving Microsoft any money. I can only sell iOS apps through apples Istore and they get some of the profit
Let’s get back to the Fembots.
I agree that this is stupid. If I want to develop a game for XBox, Playstation, or the Wii, I have to use their tools. Worse, I have to spend thousands of dollars to acquire those tools. At $99, Apples’ cost of entry is ridiculously low.
If I want to develop apps for iPhone, I can write HTML 5 code that looks like an app…
if apple has to open up the iPad to Flash development than BMW has to open their onboard computers to Javascript development. I want to cross compile apps for the BMW onboard computer – who cares if I crash the car.
Apple currently has a run rate of around 35 million iPhones each year which constitutes around 10% of the global market for phones and it’s difficult to imagine that growing much beyond 60 million units per year which is still less than a monopoly/market dominance position.
I don’t know if they put anything in the water in NewsCorp’s building on Avenue of the Americas, but – between Fox News and the New York Post- I’m beginning to suspect there’s more than a few people on a bad trip.
This is about the nation’s largest ‘now competing’ monopoly fearful of the most successful companies. It is about forcing highly successful companies to mediocracy and not hurting anyone’s feelings. I.e., bail out losers & tear down winners.
The broader market is not smart phones, it’s all cell phones, this is what the court has to (according to the Sherman Act) use to measure market share. Apple’s cell phone market share is small.
What about their Tablet market share.
@ Gabriel
The DirectX comparison is the first sensible analogy I’ve seen today. I’m so tired of people comparing computers to cars.
NEWS FLASH – the iPad is not just another car. It’s a hovercraft. The problem is that Adobe still wants to put tires on it.
Friends
*breathe*
The U.S. government is not launching an antitrust investigation against Apple.
This story in the NY Post is conjecture, built upon rumour-mongering FUD, produced in the first place by Josh Kosman, also of the Post.
See? The Post is quoting the Post, to manipulate perceptions of Apple.
I’d leave the pitchforks and torches in the shed, for at least a little while.
How about investigating those internet usage logs at FTC instead.
This is a waste of taxpayers money and like in case of green peace, getting someone’s name in the press.
But who would win if it was da Bears vs. Apple?
Perhaps the Feds are really going after the NY Post: monopolizing senseless journalism.
Based on comments that I have seen in other forums, the vocal Windows users believe that it is OK to code for Windows PCs and port to Mac. But they are adamantly against the reverse.
Gaming enthusiasts see the Mac as the “least common denominator” for gaming. They believe that the typically more limited graphics performance available on Macs will limit game designers, who will then delete the bells and whistles on the fast twitch games that their overclocked gaming PCs can render at 200 fps. For most people, I don’t think that it will make a difference. But I have argued before that Apple should push the envelope a bit more in terms of graphics cards. I’ll say it again, SJ – consider buying NVidia.
This proposed government inquiry is one of the most laughable and insane since McCarthy’s witch hint for Commies in the 1950’s. Completely baseless whichwill no doubt be the conclusion of any waste of taxpayer dollars. Just an excuse for a team of government lawyers to get paid for doing nothing.
@Ubermac
“If you have declared Marxists in the government, tyranny is just around the corner.”
Geez, get a life will ya, look up Marixist, Communist etc. and educate yourself before posting. You’re embarrasing the rest of us, unless you’re paranoid, in which case, get help.
Hey, it’s the NY Post we’re talking about here — just another Murdoch propaganda rag. Anything factual therein is purely accidental (but editorially it’s reliably looney).
I could not find a single REAL article that sated that the Feds are investigating Apple for anything. However, if the Feds were, the game is over and Apple would lose. The Justice Department lacks resources in its anti-trust division to do anything but slam dunks. Justice only goes after companies where it can win, so if they state they are going after Apple, it’s negotiation time for Apple.
What’s ironic is that we’re talking about monopolistic practices of Apple instead of Microsoft. The world has changed.
If the government files an antitrust lawsuit against Apple, it has already won. Apple will be bogged down with endless depositions, subpoenas, legal fees, etc. The idea is to avoid that lawsuit in the first place, whether or not it has any merit.
A simple inquiry into a practice, not an investigation. The Post is a poop rag not fit to wrap fish in (my opinion).
@ Ubermac,
“If you have declared Marxists in the government, tyranny is just around the corner.”
That’s not necessarily so. In Canada we had a declared Marxists in the government. He was our Prime Minister. Pierre Elliott Trudeau.
He only declared war on one of our ten Provinces. He had troops patrolling the streets of just the biggest of the Province’s cities. He rounded up and imprisoned only 500 or so of the province’s foremost intellectuals.
And, irony of ironies, when he caught the ringleaders of his anti-government conspiracy, he shipped them to Marxist Cuba.
So you see, while tyranny is just around the corner, it won’t be much of a show.
well…Apple has a good offensive line and their quarterback has the arm to get it deep to those wicked fast receivers, but the U.S. has a dominating defense and we all know –say it with me–“defense wins games”.
All Apple has to do is keep the game within reach and make it a respectable contest–they’re healthy and the backups are rested, so that should bode well for them in the post season.
Coach Jobs is a shoe-in for the Hall of Fame a successful playoff run and championship win this year could make him a fist ballot shoe-in.
“…has abused that monopoly power in ways that damage its competition.”
I would think that this move would drive developers away from Apple to Android, Windows, etc. That should help the competition. So what’s the gripe?
There’s nothing that stops developers from developing apps for both Apple and other platforms…they just have to work a little harder. So I guess developers are fundamentally lazy.
Now if Apple made developers sign some sort of exclusivity contract, there might be a case.
Not go off on a tangent but I hate these crappy government lawsuits that are title “people of the state of___” or American people vs ____.
hey how about a ” a select few, sanctomonius, elitis who have nothing better to do but abuse their authority under the name of
the people vs ______. Definately do not throw me in this melarky!
I’m just curious how this differs from the situation in the software industry in general. It’s not like you can run the same application on OSX, Windows and Linux. Is this also a problem, then?
BULLSHIT premise. It is not an antitrust violation to require participating vendors to write platform-compliant apps. Apple is not required to support any cross-platform development tools. Get real.
HAHA … I’m going to say Apple. Until the U.S. decides that they’ve had enough. Then they’ll do something stupid at which point the remaining winner will still be …uhum… APPLE!
@MCCFR
I agree with your sentiments and would point out that the cognoscenti refer to “Avenue of the Americas” only as Sixth Avenue (even if it state otherwise in the formal address)!
I find this whole thing a bit funny and wonder what lobby group is pushing this. There is nothing in the Dev agreement that says you cannot develop an app for multiple platforms just that if you want your app on the iphone you must use native code and not wrap it in a translation layer. It doesn’t even mean that you have to use xcode which is free. This is just apple trying to protect it’s image to users buy not letting substandard apps on the platform, and encourage dev’s to take advantage of the newest features. Anyone who thinks adobe would have kept flashes iphone compiler up to date with the latest features apple puts out is just fooling themselves.
Obama needs to get in there and stop Apple from making any more money. We need to re-distribute the wealth!
As Obama said… now is not the time to make a profit.
@ ubermac: I think you mean Statist, not Marxist.
@ Chrissy1: Is the iPad full of eels?
I read the NY Post story and other articles. I do not yet understand the argument here. Is it about Flash? Is it still about iTunes and apps? Is it about iPhone/iPad’s closed system? Until we really know the theory about what is allegedly wrong here (the government may kindly tell us one day), it is hard to realize analyze this.
With that said, suppose I run a PC box assembly, and I only install Windows, and I have a EULA that prohibits installing any other system software on it, am I engaging in anti-competitive behavior? Does it make a difference if I have 20% market share? 40%? 80%?
In addition, suppose Windows agrees to grant me a universal license to be the sole worldwide distributor of Windows, and I only permit Windows on my hardware. If anyone wants to write programs for Windows, they have to give me 20% of gross sales. Is that an antitrust violation? More generally, is that anti-competitive (I must assume yes here–every attempt to control or limit a product is anti-competitive)? Is it illegally anti-competitive? Just thinking out loud.
Does Apple force developers not to develop for other platforms? This is Apple’s responsibility to ensure that any developer who wants to code on the iPhone/iPad must follow guidelines. If they don’t want to do so, Apple is not going to put a gun over their head. They can leave and join other platforms. Is this too much to ask for? Does the US timidly allow terrorists to enter into the country and violate its laws?
STOP PRESS: The Wall St Journal has been ordered to change the size of the paper on which the famous financial journal is published. According to press reports this is because ads formatted for other broadsheet papers won’t fit in the narrower columns of the WSJ. “Ads should be able to run everywhere without reformatting” claimed a representative of one agency. The WSJ declined to comment…
@Big Als MBP
Don’t forget that Gilles Duceppe, federal leader of the Bloc Quebecois party was also a declared Marxist and look what happened there.
Nothing. Zippo. Nada (well he will get a nice pension when he retires)
You are right. It would be a poor show indeed.