Apparently, the question has arisen wether or not Apple should be subjected to an antitrust investigation. In their youngest SDK license terms, Apple explicitly forbids development of iPhone OS software in languages other than C, Objective C, C++ and JavaScript. That is, apps written in other languages (such as Flash/ActionScript) will no longer be accepted in the App Store. Rumors have also spread that the same goes for apps containing 3rd party ads (which is basically bullshit, since I just got updates for a few ad-containing apps).
So here is the big question: Why, for crying out loud, is it even being considered to investigate Apple in these cases? As I recall from economics class in school, antitrust legislation was originally introduced to prevent monopolists from abusing their market dominance.
In what market does Apple have a monopoly? Surely not in smartphones, if anyone comes close it would be Nokia. Not in ads either, I would say Google has a lot more market share there. So what is it? All that’s left then is the iPhone OS platform itself, but I don’t think that constitutes a market on its own. If any, Apple might have a monopoly on the MP3 player market, but you don’t hear anyone complaining that an iPod nano doesn’t run Flash.
So, Apple has no monopoly on anything related to the iPhone. And yet, these antitrust investigations (or at least pre-investigations) are apparently already underway. Am I the only one who thinks that’s a teeny bit smelly? Am I the only one that thinks Adobe is behind all this?
Frankly, I think Adobe should tuck its tail between its legs and take a hike. For one, Apple is right, Flash downright sucks, especially on non-Windows platforms. Secondly, when Apple needed Adobe the most in the mid 1990′s, Adobe just dropped Apple like a rock and said: “We’ll be focussing primarily on Windows instead of Mac OS from now on”.
Now, some 15 years later, Apple is in the position to bite back with a vengeance. I can’t really say I blame them. In fact, if Apple manages to kill off Flash altogether, you won’t hear me complaining. Adobe had its chance, they couldn’t come up with a (non-crippled) version of Flash that would decently run on a smartphone, so why should Apple be punished for saying: “Sorry, we don’t want that crap on our platform”?
Oh, one more thing: Isn’t it Adobe that won’t hesitate to tell us all that almost every video on the web requires their Flash platform to play? They’re not in any position to be complaining about monopolies.
Just my two cents.
