Apple May Face Antitrust Inquiry

suraj.sun writes with this excerpt from the NY Post: "According to a person familiar with the matter, the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission are locked in negotiations over which of the watchdogs will begin an antitrust inquiry into Apple's new policy of requiring software developers who devise applications for devices such as the iPhone and iPad to use only Apple's programming tools. Regulators, this person said, are days away from making a decision about which agency will launch the inquiry. It will focus on whether the policy, which took effect last month, 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. An inquiry doesn't necessarily mean action will be taken against Apple, which argues the rule is in place to ensure the quality of the apps it sells to customers. Typically, regulators initiate inquiries to determine whether a full-fledged investigation ought to be launched. If the inquiry escalates to an investigation, the agency handling the matter would issue Apple a subpoena seeking information about the policy."

This is why Apple needs power

[Ukab the Great]

But many OHA members are developing proprietary user experiences, which they are not contributing back into to Android—as is standard for open source projects—for fear of losing competitive advantage in the marketplace.

Your choice:

Apple's Brave New World where proprietary is done right and trains run on time vs. everyone else's scattered proprietary banana republics where trains barely run at all and each has a different gauge of track.

I'll take walled garden built in Cupertino that keeps out the chaotic evildoers from Taiwan.

Re:You know...

[Vinegar Joe]

There's also very little crime in a facist country run with an iron fist, and there is (in theory) no inequality within communisim...that doesn't make it a good idea.

But the trains run on time. And let's face it, the Nazis had the cooolest uniforms. If they'd worn black turtlenecks we'd be calling it "The Insanely Great Third Reich"......

Re:This is why Apple needs power

[Massacrifice]

So this is what it comes down to?

Apple : Lawful Good (self-righteous)
Google : Chaotic Good (for now)
Taiwan Mfg : Chaotic Neutral
Microsoft : Neutral Evil (of course!)
SCO : Chaotic Evil

Whoa nellie!

[jDeepbeep]

Let's not be too drastic with these inquiries. Apple might get mad and move all its manufacturing jobs to China or something.

Re:This is why Apple needs power

[ClioCJS]

No, it's:

Microsoft :: Capitalism.
Apple :: Fascism.
Unix :: Communism.

Re:[sigh]

[NecroPuppy]

He's management?

Re:[sigh]

[abigor]

That's true on any system that provides an api. Also, that's not even what your quote says in the first place. What sort of a "developer" are you, HTML?

Re:You know...

[Blakey Rat]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEle_DLDg9Y [youtube.com]

Hans... I've just noticed something. Have you looked at our caps recently? The badges on our caps, have you looked at them? They've got skulls on them.

Re:[sigh]

[Lemmy Caution]

They are controlling the market for applications which can run on iPhones. Literally, controlling the market itself.

Yes, there are other smart-phones. But an installed base means lock-in.

Re:[sigh]

[blackraven14250]

They have over 90% of the iPhone market

I'm nearly 100% positive we have a definitive number on what percentage of that market they have, and that the number is >90%.

Re:Its about time!

[Anonymous Coward]

You're the brightest of us all.

Re:[sigh]

[Daengbo]

If you wanted to write for both KDE and Windows, you'd use QT and get Mac for free. No porting necessary. Just recompile. Native apps with native look and feel. Yay!

Unfortunately, in this metaphor, Apple wouldn't let you sell the app you just made for their platform because the original code didn't target OS X.