Looks like Apple, Inc. is taking a page from Microsoft back in the ‘90s. Apple is currently facing a possible investigation by the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice for their alleged anti-trust activity. The company has a policy that requires all third-party developers to use Apple’s Objective-C programming language to program applications for the Apple App Store (used to purchase applications for the iPhone, iPod, and iPad). This basically prevents technologies like Adobe’s Flash to work on the i-Whatever and allow for “cross-platform” access on various devices. This means Apple wants developers to only use their own kind of programming tools so what they make will work ONLY on Apple products. This is where the antitrust issue comes in.

One might wonder how this can be considered anti-competitive and why the FTC is thinking about investigating. Well, there’s a reason why Apple doesn’t want Adobe’s Flash technology to work on its iProducts. Here is their “official” reason. Two weeks ago Steve Jobs released an open letter addressing the issue as to why he has not allowed Flash to work on Apple products. He claimed it was due to the Flash being unstable, a battery-hog, obsolete in the face of HTML 5, and unnecessary. It’s fortunate that the FTC and the Department of Justice isn’t as naïve and trusting as Mr. Jobs would like.

The real reason, methinks, is because Flash is a widely used technology that allows third-party developers to connect to other devices also using Flash. An example would be if Company A made a Flash application that worked on the iPhone as well as an Android device. The Flash application would be bought from the Apple Store since John Doe has an iPhone, but then John could throw his iPhone away and buy a brand new Android device. After that, John would most likely buy applications from the Android Market store instead of the Apple Store. So there is a simple set up as to the REAL reason why I think Steve Jobs doesn’t want the cross-platform technology to work on iProducts. The gist is that Apple will lose a lot of control and market power if Flash is able to do that to them (a.k.a. losing greenbacks/Sacagaweas/dough/mula/Benjamins/bacon).  And as everyone in the technology world knows, Steve Jobs mostly hates losing control/power/pride (more so than money). 

(Photo: thedak)