“Which brings me to the latest flap about Apple, Adobe and reports that Apple may have run afoul of anti-trust law. If I’m to understand this, developers are angry that Apple prevents them from developing cross-platform apps by refusing to allow them to use Adobe’s Flash software,” Goldman writes.
Goldman writes, “Developers are arguing and the Feds are apparently examining whether this is an abuse of Apple’s power. Spare me. This is Apple’s marketplace-Apple’s platform. And if developer’s want to develop for the App Store, and the iPad and the iPhone and the iPod, they have to play by Apple’s rules. Some developers complain that they have to go out of their way to develop one app for Apple, and then a different version for everyone else. Too bad. Walmart sets the rules for products sold in its store. Same with Barnes & Noble. Costco. If companies don’t like it, they can sell their wares across the street. But they won’t, because they can’t ignore the Apple marketplace.”
Much more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Lurker_PC” for the heads up.]
As usual – Jim Goldman gets it!
Yup. This is another waste of time and money for the Government.
This whole thing sounds like a plot from an Ayn Rand novel.
I like Jim.
-Pi
“Some developers complain that they have to go out of their way to develop one app for Apple.”
I don’t think any developers are complaining (unless they are in Adobe’s pocket).
The only one complaining is Adobe. Wha! We want to sell developers our tools. Apple is being mean to us because our tools won’t create the best apps for their devices. Whaaaa!
Grow up adobe. The era of Flash is over! Get with the program.
@breeze
Get rid of the ‘as usual’ bit and I would you say, you got it too. Jim Goldman, lest a few of us may forget, just a few months ago fancied a bit of anti-Apple dance because he was ‘duped’ by his ‘internal source’ that all was well w.r.t Steve Jobs’ health.
I’d say, if anything, Mr. Goldman is dancing his humble way back.
Who am I ??????????????
(my shoulders itching)
JG
@krquet:
Goldman has been right about Apple 80% of the time over the last 5 years. His closest competition has been right maybe 50% of the time, and the vast majority have never had a clue. He’s the best there is in his field when it comes to Apple. Nobody gets it right every time.
Thank you Jim Goldman for saying it better than anyone else I have heard so far.
@krquet
I’d much rather have someone like Mr. Goldman who seems to honestly call them as he sees them, and has the courage to change his mind and see (and think) different, over writers like Thurrott or Dvorak, whose objective – other than hitmongering – seems to be rather obscure.
krquet:
Goldman has long been a guy that uses heathy reason and fact. He’s knowledgeable and has the dignity and perspective required of a responsible journalist. He’s always stood his ground and mostly backed Apple and fought the incompetent analysts and yellow journalists that ripped it with gossip and innuendo, while providing solid fact and statistics based on historical track records. Maybe from time to time he doesn’t side entirely with Apple and gets thrown off by misleading research, but he’s never afraid to “eat his words” and admit it.
Everybody’s shit smells, but Goldman does get Apple and its’ intrinsic value to the market place, investors, and consumers.
It’s refreshing to see a real journalist still at work.
@ericdano
“Yup. This is another waste of time and money for the Government.”
Perhaps you are misdirecting your scorn.
I still have not seen one shred of evidence that anyone in the gummint has any interest in pursuing an anti-trust case against Apple.
At this time, we can point only to some anti-Apple hacks spewing anti-Apple FUD and invoking the name of the government in doing so.
When a governing body deserves blame, blame it.
Until then, look very carefully at the source of this “information”.
The likely focus of this scrutiny will be if the software market for the iPod/iPad/iPhone platform constitutes monopoly and if Apple had put barriers to entry into that market using their own monopoly position. The criteria required to meet the monopoly definition are fairly precise and in this case, rather high; you simply cannot use Psystar argument that ‘Macintosh’ is a separate market space from the rest of desktop computing market. Conversely, iPhone/iPod/iPad market cannot be taken separately from the rest of mobile market (which runs on Android, WebOS, Symbian, WinMob, Palm OS, etc). All these have same kind of bullet-point lists of features, and software developers build applications for all of them (more-or-less). What excuse could any jurist possibly have to segment this market further by defining iPod/iPad/iPhone market a separate and unique one, in order to declare Apple a monopolist in that market and therefore abuser of that monopoly?
This seems to be just unfortunate timing. With the massive abuses of market freedom and lack of regulation by financial institutions, there is no surprise that many are expecting government to keep a hawk’s eye on every single large corporation (and Apple is third largest in the world, based on market value). As we all know here, it will be a waste of time in Apple’s case.
Zeke and krquet,
Let’s not forget about Gene Munster.
Jim Goldman, I like the slant you put on this. Can we do something to keep them “across the street”? Maybe some Federal stimulus money or a Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac loan to keep them there until those phones shrivel up and die. Or, they can hold off until the iPad killers shows up!
As regards Goldman’s “feeling” about Adobe being behind this:
The latest “victims” of ninovation are begrudging and looking for revenge, Apple’s foes are all lining up and trying to put pressure on Apple in any way they can and it’s easy to panic a nervous angry public….Let’s start up the gossip and innuendo machines, they’ve always “worked well” let’s go get Apple- Not.
Lest anyone forget: Prior inquires into Apple’s business practices yielded nothing, the doomsday predictions of iPhone and other “expensive” products dying a miserable death during the nations biggest depression, yielded record earnings quarter after quarter and took the international markets by storm…iPad was born despite the distractions, because Apple is focused, determined and able to innovate in the highest of realms.
Here comes another wave of crap from the miserable nincompoops – instead of proving that they can rise to the occasion and create exciting compelling devices and computers, these lame copy cat dead beats that know only how to copy and sell shit would rather sell third grade yellow journalism and negative propaganda….
It would be soooooooo refreshing to see all other competitors actually take the honorable, high road, but that would require a secret ingredient: Substance and prowess…
I don’t think Apple has foes as much as it has lawyers who see Apple’s cash hoard and smell blood. We call it “predatory counsel”.
NHL has nailed it.
Great spirits often encounter violent opposition from mediocre minds.
– Albert Einstein
I don’t think Apple has done anything wrong. And this might seem like an unpopular opinion on this site, but I also don’t have a problem with the feds asking a few questions — so long as its not a huge time and money draining inconvenience or witch hunt.
Adobe and these developers are clearly wrong, and I’m confident that’s what any federal scrutiny will reveal.
I think some people are so averse to any kind of scrutiny in any industry they just assume the feds are going to come in and muck everything up. If they do that, I’ll be among the loudest to complain.
Nothing I’ve seen makes me think that’s happened or necessarily will happen. So lighten up until you have a real reason to be so angry.
As a Mac and iPhone developer, Cocoa and Objective-C are my tools of choice. I have no interest in Adobe’s mediocre cross-platform tools.
But I also realize that Eric Holder wants to cut out Steve Jobs’ liver and eat it with a fork.
Fortunately, Steve has a secret weapon in the White House: Rahm Emanuel. Rahm knows how to handle Holder, and knock him down as needed.
Maybe Adobe has to get smarter…
If you are going to develop for Apple’s platform, then you should use what is needed, this applies to everything in the world, from landing a job to developing an app.
It is just the rules, some people also call it monopoly… but that is not the case.
Ovi.
http://www.dreamwalkmobile.com
I side with DOJ ‘looking’ at this. There is nothing to find, but that’s their job. If, in fact they are looking at this (scant evidence that they are), hopefully rationality and reason will prevail. Apple’s reasons for the Flash ban are quite reasonable, and unless you are a frustrated Flash developer they make perfect sense. I doubt that the DOJ has many Flash developers in their midst, so they ought to come to the quick decision that this is simply a matter of sour grapes. So far as I can see, there are other other 3rd party tools still being used in conjunction with Apple’s iPhone SDK to build apps. Apple simply doesn’t want apps dumbed down for the iPhone just so some developer has easier path to sell the same app to Android users. I can’t see anything wrong with that.
If Apple isn’t allowed to control their own platform, why should any company attempt to build the next better platform? An action against Apple would be a dagger in the heart of entrepreneurial innovation.
More of the asinine Obama activist leftist agenda. He is even worse than that moron Jimmy Carter.
@NHL: Amen!