“U.S. antitrust enforcers are considering an investigation of Apple Inc. following a complaint from Adobe Systems Inc., according to people familiar with the matter,” James Rowley and Arik Hesseldahl report for Bloomberg.
MacDailyNews Take: Who knew that The Ingrate Gazoo was also a little whiny rat bastage, too?
Rowley and Hesseldahl continue, “Adobe says Apple is stifling competition by barring developers from using Adobe’s products to create applications for iPhones and iPads, said the people who spoke on condition of anonymity because they aren’t authorized to discuss the case.”
MacDailyNews Take: Adobe’s decision-makers would have been better served had they taken the time to understand what antitrust laws and regulations actually cover.
Rowley and Hesseldahl continue, “The complaint triggered discussions between the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission over which agency should review the allegations of anticompetitive behavior, the people said. Neither agency has decided whether it would open an investigation, one person said.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Ooh, discussions. And without any decision made to proceed, too. Scaaary!
Ho hum, another excuse to short the sheet out of the stock yet again. We know what the DOJ and FTC are wasting their time and taxpayers’ dollars on, but where’s the SEC? AWOL as usual.
MacDailyNews Note: Note to advertisers: (including those who advertise via third-party ad networks and become, in effect, our advertisers): Your Flash-based ads are no longer reaching the most well-heeled customers online: 50+ million iPhone owners. They’re also not hitting 35+ million iPod touch users or 1+ million brand new iPad users. If you care about reaching people with discretionary income, you might want to consider dumping your flash-based ads and moving to a more open format that people with money and the will to spend it can actually see.
Help kill Adobe’s Flash:
• Ask MarketWatch to offer HTML5 video via the customer support web form here.
• Ask CNBC to offer HTML5 video via the customer support web form here.
• Contact Hulu and ask them to offer HTML5 video via email:
• Ask ESPN360 to offer HTML5 video instead Flash via their feedback page here.
• Join YouTube’s HTML5 beta here.
• On Vimeo, click the “Switch to HTML5 player” link below any video.
By the way, do not buy Adobe’s Photoshop Elements until you have tried Pixelmator’s free 30-day trial. We use Pixelmator daily.
I want Microsoft investigated for anticompetitive behavior for forcing developers to us DirectX for 3d Graphics instead of Open GL.
As was told by Microsoft I have to use DirectX for 3d graphics hardware acceleration because Windows was designed to slowdown and not work for hardware acceleration of 3d if I designed and wrote my software to use OpenGL. As I was not going to get locked into Windows and Microsoft with DirectX I dropped development of my software on Windows.
If anyone should be investigated for anticompetitive antitrust violations it’s Microsoft and Google (Who uses their Ad monopoly to lock out competitors from their Ad Networks. Go to any site that uses Google for Ads. Now find a page on the site that the word iPhone, AT&T;, Droid etc. Note that 9 times out of 10 a Google Nexus One Ad will appear on the page.)
Take a couple of minutes and see if Adobe is in any of your Mutual Funds. If so, write the fund manager and ask them to dump Adobe stock unless they fire this turd.
MDN,
The SEC is too busy watching pr0n…
@Anti-WTF?
you got that straight. ++
Every move Adobe makes reinforces my decision to find and use alternatives to their products. Adobe is run by complete and utter morons.
Apple should buy Adobe and fire his ass. Just a suggestion.
The desktop is NOT dying if you’re using an iMac i7. Wheeeee, this is awesome!
A company with a 5% share if you count the entire cell phone market or 15% share if you only count the smart phone market, is guilty of abusing it’s monopoly?
STFU! How can 5% or even 15% market share be a Monopoly?
Apple gives away their products for making iPhone OS Apps. Adobe sells their products for making iPhone OS Apps. Apple sure is maltreating their developers.
Apple doesn’t restrict you to only Apple products to make iPhone OS Apps. Apple just does not want generic Apps on it’s iPhone OS.
It’s quality control, not anti-trust. Idiots.
@breeze,
I’m STILL using freehand… for FREE… no license needed…. EOL.
If ADOBE didn’t buy Macromedia they would be complaining about being stifled themselves.
When Adobe’s fears come true and Apple owns 80% of the smart phone market, they can just re-file their real valid complaints again at that time (IF THEY ARE STILL IN BUSINESS)!
Till then, watch would market share evaporate away under the shine of the Apple!
Adobe is the new Macrostool, in terms of software bloat and inconsistent UI. I’ve put up with the shortcomings and flaws of InDesign and Photoshop for years—hoping the NEXT update/upgrade would address them. Instead, after delay after delay, we are fed more filler. Resource hogs, speed-killers and crash-prone bloat.
Apple should buy the company and clean house. At least no one would complain about Apple’s prices for software upgrades—Adobe stands alone when it comes to extortion.
mdn mw: “because” i love you, mamma!
Didn’t Adobe sign partnership deals to distribute Flash (when finally available) on Google/Android, RIM/BlackBerry, Nokia/Symbian, Palm/HP/WebOS, and Microsoft which represents more than 70% of the current smartphone market? Adobe now wants the government to force their Flash monopoly down Apple’s throat.
Unfortunately the one company inclined to compete and destroy Adobe is ironically Microsoft. They have held a sword over their head for years to the effect that do as we say, put us first or we invest heavily in competing with your core products.
The future however bodes better because the whole iPad environment, and indeed touch orientated tablet computers generally, will indeed allow competitors to get in on the action and compete on a relatively equal basis, as the whole process of re writing those key Adobe products to take advantage of the new input paradigm would be horrendous and probably easier to start afresh. With the key software products Apple already has, with additions and doses of steroids to them and sensible acquisitions if required, Apple above all should be able to offer alternatives aimed specifically at the iPad which will grow with it and adaptable to the desktop if required. I can’t believe that with the present war brewing that particular option isn’t waiting in the wings just in case a desperate Adobe tries to threaten product withdrawals.
I think this is going to be one of Adobe’s biggest strategic mistakes in their history. This can turn around on them and have the regulators and public really look at Adobe’s past and current anti-competitive behavior.
Adobe acquired and killed PageMaker, FreeHand, GoLive and the Mac version of FrameMaker. I think Adobe should really tread carefully because I know I’m not the only one that has been personally harmed with the elimination of these products. Not mention allowing them to keep their current products priced astronomically and artificially high.
You can build your own suite of applications:
– Pixelmator
– Freeway
– Easy Web Animator
– Intaglio
— (others) Acorn, LiveQuartz, Artrage, iWeb, Goldfish, Drawberry, Drawit, Inkscape, Photoline, Lineform, ZeusDraw, Swift 3D, BannerZest, Skitch, Jing, ummmm and Piscass – ugh — LOTS of things out there…
— (video) – Quicktime, Handbrake, Visualhub, iSquint, Miro Video, Kigo Video, Evom… SOME MANY MORE I HAVE TO STOP HERE
— Xcode, iPhoneOS4.0,
This is going to make people really love Adobe…
What idiots. Fire that nitwit of a CEO today stockholders…
One can only imagine the kind of outcome Adobe’s CEO expects from this course of action.
What’s next, members of the Special Olympics will be allowed to compete at the professional level without qualifying?
WOW – nice going Anti-WTF? – agreed here.
BUT @ acid
to think the desktop or even a laptop TO DIE… I hope not… I rather enjoy having tools to develop devices or be creative. Without a desktop theres no way of developing for the iPad. And, iPad/iPhone doesn’t have everything I wish to use… though its an amazing device with a wonderful future.
@Big Als MBP
Well said. It is a terrible circular argument to say that Apple has a dominant market share of … iPhones. Courts reject such arguments automatically–yes, Apple could say that Adobe has a dominant market share of … Flash licensing. The market is that of smart phones (for comparison sakes).
@ Macdust
“Yea, I can see how free development tools are really hurting developers.”
I think MS used a similar argument about Internet Explorer. Predatory pricing is a form of anti-competition and can lead to antitrust charges, provided other factors can be established.
The media description: “…discussions between the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission over which agency should review the allegations of anticompetitive behavior…”
The actual conversation:
DoJ: Dude, do you know anything about the iPhone development environment?
FTC: Fscked if I know. Adobe says Apple’s being anti-competitive. There’s gotta be something to it, right?
DoJ: I guess. So you got this one, right?
FTC: Hell. No. This one’s all you.
DoJ: OK – roshambo?
There’s a huge opportunity here for someone who can think big, to create and develop suite of Apps that are harnessed to work together in an integrating framework, that unifies them as modules, into a PS/Illustrator alternative App.
FLASH and all that is FLEX — is far too much for a specific market… ADOBE has had many years to offer their MOBILE deployment software – it that really exists — doing nothing much with all this powerful software for this market.
Adobe does not understand the MOBILE market place.
And they do not listen to their CUSTOMER base as ADBOBEs CEO likes to say they do…
Nor do they show a willingness to attempt to carter to it – by which perhaps a NEW PRODUCT for PC/MAC toward iPhone/iPad/iTouch.
There was a time when a ALL-IN-ONE application concept of LAYOUT, PHOTOE DITING, VECTOR ILLUSTRATION would be all packaged as one…
THE LESSON HERE for an all-in-one app — might have been a direction more to do with marketing – however – the old lesson of a person with many skills is less a professional at one of of their skills.
FLASH is over bloated for the iPHONE market. The video container is not required… development for stores and advertising is also not dependant on Adobes applications.
Take away all MAC users of ADOBE products – I am not sure that will happen – but IT SURE would make a difference to the future of Adobe. Buying Adobe… no – thats not a good idea – it never was. Is there technologies Apple needs from taking over Adobe? MAybe to OPEN-SOURCE everything?
Apple competes when it needs to and defends when required too.
AND it does it with style and class…
JOBS open letter is an example.
Thanks for your ongoing efforts toward HTML5. You may need to update your note to advertisers to include:
MacDailyNews Note: Note to advertisers: thanks for the advertising dollars (Fancast) but our iPad and iPhone users can’t watch your videos.
Hey Adobe..
You know that new version of CS5…..
You think I am going to buy it?
Thank again…
Won’t happen.
(I’ve been a PS user since version ONE!!!!
NO MORE, ADOBE – NO MORE!
Warren:
This soup needs slow and special cooking.
Who would you identify as a candidate that’s capable and able of taking on the creation task of one or two consolidating Apps that would give pro users a reasonable alternative?