“In June, the FTC opened an investigation into Apple’s decision to ban developers from using other companies’ tools to develop software for its mobile devices,” Kosman reports. “Apple also shut out Adobe’s Flash video technology from its iPhone and iPad.”
Kosman reports, “According to a source, the European Commission recently joined the FTC probe into whether Apple’s business practices harm competition… The European Union recently adopted a new Digital Agenda aimed at encouraging the interoperability of technology.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Obviously, geniuses abound on both sides of the Atlantic.
Apple (which has nothing resembling a monopoly, by the way) along with every other company on earth that so desires, has every right to protect their platforms from lowest common denominator crapware that fails to take advantage of unique OS hooks.
We don’t want dumbed-down, generic ports excreted by lazy developers on our iPhones, iPads, and iPod touches and neither should the EC, the FTC or any other government entity. The only companies that want such a thing are those who are badly losing the App War. The Nokias, RIMs, and Microsofts of the world don’t care about the quality of the apps (and hence don’t care about their end users, either). They only care about the sheer numbers of apps that they can claim for marketing purposes.
Is the EC, in all of their collective brilliance, going to probe Microsoft (Xbox), Sony (PlayStation), and Nintendo (Wii) for “interoperability of technology,” too? Sounds really stupid, right? Because it is.
Why should Apple bother with excretion software when Windows is still around?
@Ubermac
I get amused at how tough people like you are on these sites. That’s the problem with blogs and sites like this. Makes people like you feel really powerful, spouting off. You would NEVER say half of what you say here to someone’s face.
It all comes down to money. Apple sales are through the roof and accessory developers want a piece if the action at the lowest price possible with no consideration to the customers. Also, as mentioned in an earlier comment, “quality norms” aren’t what Apple customers generally want. This is why we spend the money on an ABOVE QUALITY product. I was a windows proponent for years until I bought an iPhone and noticed the difference from other makers handsets (poor reception, non-functional apps, constantly trading for a new because the old didn’t work). Why should apple pay for some cheap labor/parts company making parts that could ruin an Apple product? I say we should be able to use whatever accessory we want but ALSO ASSUME responsibility if we choose not to heed Apple’s warning.
“Ungarelli
You have no bias.”
Or weft, or warp.
Well, maybe some warp. Yes, definitely warped.
FYI- Obama is not a liberal. A lib would never have put a Republican in at Treasury, a Corporate Lawyer in at AG, Larry Summers as economic advisor, nor sold out Universal Healthcare for what is essentially Bob Dole’s Healthcare proposal from the 1990’s.
Bernie Sanders, Kucinich and a few others are true liberals/progressives. Obama has a bunch of corporate friendly ConservaDems and Republicans among his advisors and cabinet.
Of course if all you watch is CNBC and Faux you would never know that.
Is there any way I can get a filter on this site that filters out all this mindless political drivel? Can it just let the Mac news stuff through?
If you are seriously upset about this, contact the FTC and let them know. This all started because Adobe went crying to the FTC when Apple wouldn’t let them play with their toys so we have the right to do the same. Call or write the FTC and tell them that as a taxpayer you are upset with their foolish behavior. You could also call your representatives in Washington. If enough people get in touch, they will back off.
They day they tell Apple what to do is the day steve shuts off the magic iconveyor belt pro
mdn magic word: society (as in what doesn’t have a clue)
Flags litter the field. The referee signals piling on.
Great call. How do you separate the good from the bad. It’s like renting a video for the night. How do you know which one to pick. That sounds like the standard dilemma of the free market economy. That’s also the choice each one should make for themselves.
As I already said: Apple should uphold her standard and accept the apps into the AppStore. But should do so by evaluating each individual app, without excluding a complete set without a valid quality argument. That’s what’s happening now.
Great call. How do you separate the good from the bad. It’s like renting a video for the night. How do you know which one to pick. That sounds like the standard dilemma of the free market economy. That’s also the choice each one should make for themselves.
As I already said: Apple should uphold her standard and accept the apps into the AppStore. But should do so by evaluating each individual app, without excluding a complete set without a valid quality argument. That’s what’s happening now.
Great call. How do you separate the good from the bad. It’s like renting a video for the night. How do you know which one to pick. That sounds like the standard dilemma of the free market economy. That’s also the choice each one should make for themselves.
As I already said: Apple should uphold her standard and accept the apps into the AppStore. But should do so by evaluating each individual app, without excluding a complete set without a valid quality argument. That’s what’s happening now.
Great call. How do you separate the good from the bad. It’s like renting a video for the night. How do you know which one to pick. That sounds like the standard dilemma of the free market economy. That’s also the choice each one should make for themselves.
As I already said: Apple should uphold her standard and accept the apps into the AppStore. But should do so by evaluating each individual app, without excluding a complete set without a valid quality argument. That’s what’s happening now.
Great call. How do you separate the good from the bad. It’s like renting a video for the night. How do you know which one to pick. That sounds like the standard dilemma of the free market economy. That’s also the choice each one should make for themselves.
As I already said: Apple should uphold her standard and accept the apps into the AppStore. But should do so by evaluating each individual app, without excluding a complete set without a valid quality argument. That’s what’s happening now.
Great call. How do you separate the good from the bad. It’s like renting a video for the night. How do you know which one to pick. That sounds like the standard dilemma of the free market economy. That’s also the choice each one should make for themselves.
As I already said: Apple should uphold her standard and accept the apps into the AppStore. But should do so by evaluating each individual app, without excluding a complete set without a valid quality argument. That’s what’s happening now.
Great call. How do you separate the good from the bad. It’s like renting a video for the night. How do you know which one to pick. That sounds like the standard dilemma of the free market economy. That’s also the choice each one should make for themselves.
As I already said: Apple should uphold her standard and accept the apps into the AppStore. But should do so by evaluating each individual app, without excluding a complete set without a valid quality argument. That’s what’s happening now.
Abobe has turned the whole Apple community against them. When the web turns HTML5 I will happily unistall Flash. Apple users should also stop supporting this crap company by stop buying their crappy and expensive Apps. Adobes flash has forced Google Chrome and Firefox to implement crash protection in their browsers, only because this stoopid plugin that happily consumes all your CPU power. Would be interesting to see how much CO2 Flashhas caused because of 100% CPU over the years…
Flash is probably to blame for global warming.
@ Ubermac:
Right after your wedding to your 12 year old cousin, you can cut out the racist ” monkey boy” crap.
“What if you bought a Ford car and they put a gasoline fill hole on it that ONLY would accept gas from pumps secured and sold by Ford ? and if you put ANY other gas in, it would void your warranty ?”
Sorry. Not the same. Gas is gas. There is no technological distinction between brands. Software by nature is aimed at specific platforms.
“And Developers legally have NO Options but to use Apple’s development environment and pay Apple 30%.”
Developers pay NOTHING to Apple. If a developer wants $10 for an app, he gets $10. He alone freely sets the app’s price, with full knowledge that Apple will charge the consumer more to cover the developer’s distribution, fulfillment, and billing.
Very powerfull mdn take! I concur!
@ confounded…
Apples app store is not a monopoly.
Android and blackberry have their own app markets that can only be used on those devices.
You are confused I think. If I buy an iPhone I know that my mobile game and music market will be iTunes and the app store. I don’t know a single human being who does not understand that.
The iPhone and iTunes are compatible with PCs. So you do not need to purchase a Mac though I must admit once you own one apple product it is hard to ignore the rest.
Consumers do have options. Only idiots get confused. That’s like telling Macy’s department stores to carry unionbay (which is a walmart vendor) when they can freely choose which vendors they want in their stores depending on demographics and other factors. If Macy’s says no, they say no. Go shop somewhere else. Find that article of clothing elsewhere. If apple says no adobe..then no adobe. Go buy a different phone. Again, how could you miss the options?
Apple IS competition against the dumbass ‘anything goes’ crapware platforms. Stopping Apple from controlling what apps can run on their hardware ITSELF equals KILLING COMPETITION.
Oh the TechTardiness of governments. PATHETIC.
It should totally illegal for Apple to disallow any software on their devices based on policy !! It is absurd.
Apple has no right to control what software we use, no matter how much you don’t like it !!!
I can’t believe people support this stance. What country are you from ? Are freedom and liberty oppressed there ?