Apple’s long had a reputation for trying to torpedo its competitors and it seems like the US government has taken notice.
Reports state that the US Federal Trade Commission and the US Department of Justice will be starting antitrust proceedings against Apple for anti-competitive practices. Hoping to slow down its competitors, Apple’s recently filed a bevy of lawsuits against HTC, the largest manufacturer of Android phones.
It has also taken a vocally anti-Flash stance and the government seems to believe this is abusing their position as a market leader.
To be honest, it’s about damn time.
I am an Apple fan. I have been since I bought my first iPod. Apple has held these annoying policies as long as I’ve used Apple products. While they’ve helped net Apple a ton of market share, they’ve also come across as strong-armed tactics. While it wasn’t too annoying if Apple neglected a standard when they only has a small fraction of the market, they now command a sizeable enough market-share to screw things up if they see fit.
I manage a network of iMac computers across ten buildings and it’s been bad enough as it is. Apple devices, especially when paired with non-Apple wireless networking devices, are very finicky at best. When Apple makes its planned move away from Flash, trying to drag the rest of the world along with it kicking and screaming, I know for a fact that I’m going to get nothing but complaints from the people I support.
Sure, Flash is buggy. Its problems aren’t limited to Mac, either. But at the moment, HTML5 is not ready to take its place as a format. Nor is H.264. Flash is endemic across the internet and even if Apple decides they’re not interested in supporting it, it’s not something that will vanish overnight.
More irritatingly, however, has been Apple’s heavy-handed anti-competitive policies in the mobile arena. Apple is lucky enough to own a few incredibly vague, broad patents, which make it incredibly difficult to innovate in the field of smartphones. Android was incredibly reluctant to include any multitouch in the earliest flavors of Android, lest Apple file an angry lawsuit against them.
Indeed, Apple recently filed a couple of lawsuits against HTC, alleging more than 20 infringements of patents as vague as “Object-Oriented Graphic Systems,” “Unlocking A Device By Performing Gestures On An Unlock Image,” and other similar patents. These lawsuits have essentially been aimed at Android, using HTC as nothing but a proxy. It’s just a very ham-fisted way of trying to limit competition.
Finally, Apple’s recent behavior concerning the iPhone leak has been outrageously heavy-handed. Sure, it appeared like Apple had let the controversy go and that they’d done something uncharacteristically generous. Then, Jason Chen’s house was broken into (yes, it was a break-in because the cops had an invalid warrant). The damage had already been done, and Apple stood to gain nothing for trying to rage-kill the guy that found the phone, and yet they did it anyways.
In short, Apple’s been on an ego trip lately. Funnily enough, Apple’s recent behavior smacks of the fuss and bluster that Microsoft had exhibited before the United States v. Microsoft case. In fact, some of the charges levied against Microsoft in that Anti-trust suit could easily be applied to Apple in this case. But more importantly, it’s about time for someone to take Steve Jobs down a peg. An Anti-trust suit might be the only way to puncture his ego.
I’ve thought along these lines for some time now. Nice that someone else noticed.
I agree. I have bought, used and enjoyed Apple products. But the actions of late, cause me, a developer, to seriously step back and re-evaluate the brand and the implications of their business practices. I’m planning on moving to Android in the next month. It will be harder for me to leave the Macbook Pro because OSX is a very compelling argument on top of the ability to boot Windows and Linux which I can’t do in reverse. But if Apple continues down this path of tyranny, I’ll spend my money elsewhere. I did it with Wal-mart and I can do it with Apple. Don’t underestimate the power of the consumer.
I’m running Windows 7 and Snow Leopard on my PC – OSX actually runs much better on PC’s if you know what your doing as you can easily save thousands on hardware that literally rapes all Mac hardware. Had I bought a Mac with the same specs as my PC, it would have cost me $7000 instead of the $3000 my PC cost. You pop open the case on both and they are literally the same parts from the same manufacturers and both can run all the same OS’s. Also I got a cosmos m1000 case so it totally looks a lot sexier than an Apple product imo.
Apple should be stripped of their generic patents that cover bullshit like unlocking a phone and object oriented graphics – stuff that has been around years before they even had the idea to make a phone. Java and Flash have object oriented graphics and have been around many many years before iPhone. Virtually every phone in the world that does not have a flip has some sort of method to lock and unlock it (one of my old old phones has a physical switch that is virtually identical in every respect to iPhones unlock except that it is not virtually presented – its much older than iPhone).
About damn time, I’m an Apple user but don’t like it how Apple locks in it’s customers to buy things they could get cheaper if a 3rd party made it.
AMEN!
I’ve been a long time Apple user, I actually stopped using Macs when I sold my Mac LC II way back then because I was getting tired of having to pay premium for everything.
I have a Macbook now (for almost 2 years) and I love it, a bit more opened, I also have an iPhone which I love but I also hate the fact it is so damn proprietary and that I have to play by Apple’s rules.
Can’t wait to get my hands on an iPad and continue bitching about Appholes.
I don’t agree. I think people are overracting about the stolen iPhone. Jason Chen committed a CRIME and I don’t care what you say, the shield law should bot give reporters the right to break the law.
In any case, I believe Apple is well within the right to tell developers they can’t use a thrd party software to develop for the platform. It’s a good busines decision. If they don’t like it, then dvelop for a different platform. It’s as simple as that. Apple should not have to jeopordize their own platform by having to wait for the third party to update their own software to support new API’s later down the road.
And you really should correct your article because no antitrust lawsuit has been started. It’s just an inquiry for now. I’m sure Apple will be fine because there are plenty of competitors out there who aren’t going to be hurt by Apple’s new developer policy.
What department at Apple do you work for, anyways?
Sorry, have to point out the typo in the title. It’s Antitrust, not Anti-trust :)
Mistakes? What mistakes? :P
I think most people are sick of them. At least the people I know. I like their products, but I don’t like their BS.
“Android was incredibly reluctant to include any multitouch in the earliest flavors of Android, lest Apple file an angry lawsuit against them.”
For good reason. When Jobs learned that Google had plans to make a mobile phone, he warned Eric Schultz not to use what he learned at Apple, or he’d sue.
Months went by, and finally Google released the multitouch update for Android anyway.
It’s nearly identical to what happened in Apple vs. Microsoft. In both cases a partner decided to copy what Apple had developed.
As yourself why there’s no outcry against this plagiarism.
I think it’s the Walmart effect. As in, I can get it cheaper THERE, so I won’t buy it HERE … even though I know it’s a knockoff.
Let’s be realistic.
Google didn’t HAVE to copy the iPhone. They could have developed alternate user interface strategies: their own designs. They could have made the Droid different enough to stand on it’s own.
But copying the iPhone was the POINT. A knockoff is successful because it copies something original, that’s proven to be popular.
BTW, MAJOR tin-foil-hat props for blaming Apple for a police raid.
I guess we’re supposed to believe that the cops wouldn’t have bothered to investigate a stolen prototype without Jobs pushing for it?
Sure, why bother investigating a crime worth over $5,000 ?
Want to talk about plagiarism?
Apple stole the interface idea from Creative when that company approached them for a MP3 player design. Not to mention they stole a name. They had to pay Creative big bucks.
Ditto with the name iPhone: Cisco Systems had it first.
Sorry, Eric Schmidt
I understand your points, Will. What I’m trying to get across is that Apple’s patent on multitouch was incredibly vague and actually filed in a way that related to something else.
In any case, there is evidence from multiple reputable sources that quote the San Mateo County DA as saying that Apple called reporting stolen property and requested an investigation. I’m not going to even go into the particulars or ethics behind what Jason did, because they’re really quite murky. However, as a blogger, I always find myself a bit concerned whenever stuff like this happens.
Apple’s patents being vague is not really Apple’s fault. They are working within the failed system of our US patent system. Serious overhaul needs to happen here to prevent these ridiculous patents ever being issued.
“In any case, there is evidence from multiple reputable sources that quote the San Mateo County DA as saying that Apple called reporting stolen property and requested an investigation.”
If someone stole your property (which seems to be what occurred here), would you not call the Police, report it stolen, and request an investigation?
Thought so.
The fact that you think he’s an asshole, doesn’t mean he’s breaking the law. You do a lot of whining about how you don’t like what he does, but you don’t point out a single law that has been broken.
Well, now that you mention it, California has a law stating that it’s illegal to buy or obtain any items that are known to be stolen. Gizmodo’s only defense for this is that they had to have the phone before they ould verify that it was really an Apple prototype. Of course in the process of “seeing” the phone, they also took pictures and posted those pictures online. Sounds like a shaky defense to me.
I haven’t used Apple products for years because of these very reasons. They’ve always been closed, only allowing very specific hardware companies to produce products that will work with their computers. They never did well in cross comparability with Windows, etc. . Now that they have had more success Steve Jobs is back at it again. The thing is, what allowed them to survive is exactly what he’s trying to kill off.
FYI. . Apple does NOT have a patent on multitouch. They have patents on forms of multitouch like scrolling or panning but not multitouch itself.
Thank you for this article… Steve Jobs is turning yesterdays AOL in to today’s APPLE
Really this is not about Flash/Adobe.. this is about forcing users to remain in side an apple based eco-system, in which Apple can force developers and software innovators in to giving a slice of profits from their prodcution efforts. The internet for all its pluses and minuses has flourish under being open in the sense that anyone can interface with all the web has to offer from any device. When a developer can create a product that consumers from any platform can access thee the final decision maker as to whether the prodcut is a success or failure represents a trully open free market. Take this away and you have a dictatorship ( a walled off garden) If many device maker begins to do as Apple has done and forces all developers to use only one specific solution for creating products to access to a common virtual world then our emerging virtual world of the internet will be fractured. Consumers and developers will suffer both from access to information as well as ability to innovate. Steve Jobs dictate really makes no sense… Java Applets were touted as the next big thing in late 90′s and it died because customers did not want it. No device maker came out and said Java Applets are officially dead.. So why does Steve Jobs need to do this with Flash.. IF flash is really as bad as Steve Jobs’s says it is shouldn’t flash just die of it’s own accord when consumers find it no longer useful. Then there would be NO ground for Flash/Adobe to stand on. But this is not the case. Seems like if Steve Jobs is really so confident that Flash is dead and serves no use, then instead of issuing a commandment “Flash is Officially dead and I will not allow my customers to use it anymore” he could simply do what is done now in browsers and have easily identifiable button that disables flash. Customers could choose to simply shut off flash if they don’t want it and many companies would immediatley recognize this and shut if off. Why does Steve need to make that Choice instead of the end USER?
Hey Zorro. The fact is that a lot of device makers do dictate what code and programs can be used to program on their device. An example are gaming consoles. I don’t want to argue with you on philosophical grounds, but Id like to make two points. You can let me know what you think.
One, the success of the app store is dictated by the level of trust that consumers place in it. I have on many occasions purchased an app that was ‘buggy’ or didn’t work right. By allowing apps that are of less quality into the app store that don’t use the most advance features of the hardware, consumers are less willing to make the decision to purchase. I know this because I work in the field of online marketing and know how important it is to remove any reason not to purchase from the consumers mind.
Two, Apple relies on rapidly advancing the hardware/software in order to maintain their profit margins. Their costs of development are higher than a platform like Android whose primary strategy is to be a fast follower. In the first phase of the smartphone competition, simply having apps was enough of a competitive advantage. That’s no longer the case. At some point in time in the near future, both HP and Google will have figured out how to simplify their app markets. Where Apple needs to differentiate itself is on the quality of their apps. What we are seeing is a push by Apple to push out developers who aren’t programming in the way that advances their platform. This is not much different from Google who advises marketers on best practices on how to advertise on Adwords or to be included in their search results. (You get banned, often with very little feedback if you violate one of their rules).
I’m not going to argue Apple is right. For a company that preaches elegant design, they sure don’t handle these situations in an elegant fashion. Still, these decisions are made for a reason and often are needed for a company to stay competitive.
Chu, just want to comment on your #2… ‘fast follower’. AFAICT, Android has home screen widgets whereas iPhone does not; Android has multi tasking for some time; iPhone does not (yet); Android has Live Wallpaper; iPhone does not. In addition, many of the early improvements in the iPhone dev cycle were in response to business (crackberry and windows mobile users) who said, it just works over here, why not there? Also on 1st Gen iPhone there was BASIC features missing like proper BT support, lacking camera; no file viewer, no custom ringtones, no voice dialing, and a plethora of arbitrary limitations.
Who is following who? If anything, there is a bit of give and take on all sides.
That said, Apple can get bent. I am a consumer and I’ll never go for iPhone if only for their draconian tactics. Loving Android!
I’m gonna say the same thing I said else where. Your point about game systems is invalid. Game manufacturers are well know for using converters. You honestly think they spend the time developing 3-4 versions of the same software? The average game is created in 18-24 month lifecycle or less. Not to mention most of these studios don’t have the man power to put multiple people on the same game for each platform. One master version is published to multiple platforms, then each version is tested for bugs and updated as needed.
As for your second point, Apple does no such thing as release”rapidly advancing” hardware/software. They do controlled releases. They purposefully limit what can be done, so that they can release it later and call it “all new” or “revolutionary.” Apple has done this since the first ipod. Did they have the radio on the ipod? No. Did everyone else have on their mp3 player? Yes. And guess what happened when the 5th gen nano’s came out, RADIO! OMG! Now lets discuss the iphone, you couldn’t mms, or record video. Even though camera phones before the iphone was even released had these capabilities then these were “hot new features,” oh but the old hardware can’t do it, you have to buy this all new 3gs.
Apple is very careful how they choose to market and release new features. This is how they keep up their profit margins, by forcing you to buy a new product each generation. It has nothing to do with the cost of development. The only time this comes into play is when they refresh a device to have more memory or something similar, then they are able to do a price drop because cost of manufacturing has gone down. They also do it to lure you into buying, then dropping a new product 6-9 months later, making you think yours is outdated.
Apple is the king of marketing, anyone that’s in business understands the brilliance of their marketing tactics. The average consumer doesn’t know and even if they do, they probably won’t care at the end of the day.
On a 3rd note, “Android whose primary strategy is to be a fast follower,” Android was designed as an open development project, it’s not a closed lockdown environment like the iphone. Google also bought out the Android startup in 2005. The iphone came out in ’07. Google welcomes others to help with the development, and that’s why it progresses so quickly. Everything with apple is behind closed doors. Are something from android, based off the iphone? Certainly, but in no way is it a complete ripoff. Android is becoming more of what consumers are demanding from it.
I’m also a Mac fan – a huge one. Absolutely love their products, have an iPhone/iPod/MacBook. But I don’t agree with their current businesses practices. This is not the way to go about getting rid of a technology that they believe is flawed. Flash, while problematic, is too widely used for them to take an overall approach of removing it from their portable technology.
The number of websites that incorporate flash (take YouTube as the biggest example) is numerous. I don’t see why these sites, and application developers, should have to tip-toe around Apple’s feelings regarding Flash and their products.
I also don’t agree at Apple’s handling of their new API. Something does need to be done, and maybe a lawsuit is just the thing…
I’ve invested a great deal in Apple products. I’ve moved completely away from PC and onto Imac, Macbook Pro, even picked up a 30inch display, and have 3 iphones under by belt. I don’t like feeling like company that once was the rebel, is now the next Microsoft though. Competition drives innovation, and unfortunately in this country, money tends to trump what’s right without someone stepping in. Sure, I want apple to be successful, however, I’d never want to see a company get comfortable because that’s when they start treating their customers like we need them v.s. the other way around.
On the specific subject of flash… “flash is buggy” seems a far distant 2nd to flash’s ability to deliver a lot of apps you see on the apple app store, only via the web and outside of Apple’s control. Doesn’t surprise me they’d take moves to prevent its use, but then again, as others have mentioned, flash isn’t going anywhere. It really sucks, given all of the existing flash talent out there, that there isn’t a less monopolistic way to address the issue.
This article is BS. The writer doesn’t really give reasons why legally Apple should be sued with antitrust violations, he just spouts off a bunch of stuff that he personally doesn’t like about Apple.
If indeed Apple is going to be probed for antitrust violations (the source of that rumor was the New York POST, a tabloid newspaper), it won’t be because Apple is suing HTC (legally) because of patents. It also won’t have any thing to do with Jason Chen and the stolen iPhone episode. And Apple’s situation certainly doesn’t resemble the government case against Microsoft. Despite the big myth about the lawsuit against Microsoft, it really had nothing to do with “bundling” Internet Explorer. Many people forget this, but the primary reason that Microsoft got sued was due to their threats against computer manufacturers, who were trying to install Netscape by default on the Windows desktop.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/14653.stm
http://www.windowsitpro.com/article/news2/pc-makers-were-threatened-by-microsoft-over-ie-4.aspx
The following link is actually the court document outlining the civil action against Microsoft. Notice that the opening paragraphs speak mostly about OEMs and not about the bundling of Internet Explorer.
http://www.justice.gov/atr/cases/f200400/200457.pdf
Sorry to ruin the hopes of Apple Haters, but there is actually very little chance Apple is going to be sued for antitrust violations. More than likely, Adobe has complained to the Justice Department about the recent clause in the iPhone contract and as a result, the Justice Department will do due diligence in investigating Adobe’s complaints, but that’s all. Apple doesn’t control enough of the smartphone market for them to be considered a monopoly.
I disagree. Flash is a shitty standard that deserves to die screaming. It hogs the CPU, crashes browsers, and is worthless on any device that doesn’t or can’t have a mouse connected to it — like the iPhone.
Adobe’s just pissy because they’re not as competitive as they used to be. They’re responding to Apple the way Netscape responded to Microsoft back in the 1990s: if you can’t compete, file a lawsuit.
I like the way you think Eddie!
I also agree. Let the Flash trash phase-out begin — I know it’ll take a while, but I appreciate Apple for doing their part to hasten the process. In addition to the issues Eddie listed, Flash doesn’t behave like a normal DOM element (doesn’t respect z-index, for example), and causes hell for web developers. I long for the day of universal adoption of open web standards, and Flash is standing in the way.
The ideal situation IMO would be for Apple and Adobe (and others) to start competing on content authoring tools that output apps which use open standards (HTML5, SVG, JavaScript, etc) for runtime. But, alas, they’re both greedy and they like their closed, proprietary platforms. At least Apple contributes to open source software (WebKit, Darwin kernel, and lots more).
Anyway, my hope is that Flash’s (slow) decline leads to a greater effort to develop the free and open technologies that will replace it.
It is interesting that so many “consumers” care that much about Flash. I’d even go as far as to hazard a guess that these “consumers” actually know a bit about coding…i.e. they are Flash developers and they and Adobe are the only ones that really care about this whole issue and NOT the consumers themselves, who are (rightfully) technology agnostic.
Flash, began as a simple animation tool before Adobe decided to build a development platform around something that should have never been accepted as such. Flash is not a programming platform, it is not an alternative OS, it not even a good scripting language. It is mediocre at best and has been widely accepted only because, up to the coming of HTML 5, it has been the only viable option for web page animation.
Apple is trying to protect the integrity of their products. Apple wants to control the iPhone OS platform. It does not want to control YOUR platform. Everyone, can freely choose. As a longtime developer I have programmed for many platforms (Flash among them) and for 3 years now I have been coding for iPhone OS with Obj-C. I was willing to put in the effort to learn a completely new language because after 25 years of computing experience I share Steve Jobs’ opinion that native code is unsurpassed in its quality and efficiency. Somehow, I feel that many others in my age-span will feel the same.
Now, if Flash is unleashed on iPhone we all know that we will get thousands of sub-par or at the very best approximations of what native apps can achieve. Does the consumer care? Maybe, maybe not. What many of us iPhone developers care about is not to see our efforts get wasted by an influx of developers who will reap the benefits of the platform with less than half of the effort we’ve put in.
Flash developers on the other hand, want the easy way in. They see iPhone OS as a lucrative opportunity to extend their market. Literally, they aim to get max. compensation for zero effort. Is that fair? You be the judge.
Say what you will about Jobs and Apple. Yes, even I hate it e.g., when I have to wait a week for my app to get approved. Yes, Jobs is not the most sympathetic CEO out there (are there any?) but he has a vision. Without him we would not have iPhone or even the (quite good) Android. We would still be stuck with crappy Win Mobile and the ultimate in developer-unfriendliness which is Symbian.
Similar arguments have been stated in the past for Java. Has anyone really seen a Java desktop app that can stand up to the best native desktop apps? I guess not. It’s a matter of plain simple computer science.
I suggest we get back to the basics of computing and figure out what is good or not.
And to those who cry about freedom of expression, you’re free to express yourself on any other OS platform out there.
Flash “…is worthless on any device that doesn’t or can’t have a mouse connected to it…,” but my now 3 year old Windows Mobile 6.1 phone (an AT&T 8525, aka HTC Hermes) had 32MB of RAM on a 400MHz processor and ran flash just fine. I had no issues viewing video, using interactive flash applets, training videos, or anything else through my phone, but yet phones can’t do it now, 3 years later.
I agree that on occasion, Flash can be buggy, and can cause all sorts of issues, and note that it has required regular patching for security vulnerabilities lately, however the same can be said for HTML5 and H.264 and other technologies that are supposedly the “Flash Killer.” I also feel I need to point out, that Flash is not a standard, and developers can choose whether or not to utilize it in their work. It does have enough of a marketshare to make it seem like a standard, as it has developed since the mid-nineties, and enough PC’s have availability to use it, that it’s difficult to avoid for rich, interactive content; Especially when you include PC’s in the enterprise that cannot install Firefox, Chrome or another browser, and who must use IE for enterprise application compatibility. Other browsers aren’t flexible enough in this workspace (yet), and IE doesn’t support the Flash alternatives (yet).
i agree with everything you said about apple’s BS, except the flash part. i’m 100% behind jobs on that one, the faster flash dies out the better the internet will be. html5 is NOT ready yet but you can use it today if you don’t care about IE6. i just recently built my own site in html5 and i’m never turning back.
Wow. . . you have set off a little fire here haven’t you.
While some of us may want the Gov to “straighten Apple out” by the time they get around to doing anything the smartphone market will have changed considerably and Apple will be well past iPhone OS 5 or later. And the market may have already corrected the issue.
Windows 7 series anyone?
Name one product or industry category that Apple enjoys a high majority of market share and where there isn’t other viable options on the market…
iPhone enjoys less than 20% of smart phone market, and less than 1% of the total mobile phone pie. – with plenty of alternatives on the market. And there’s only 1M iPads sold to date. Other mobile devices don’t offer Flash support. Why not target RIMM et al?
This argument has no basis in reality and a waste of time. Flash has always been a closed proprietary system, and is becoming less and less relevant. Get over it.
Jason Chen admitted to comitting felony receiving stolen property. To be convicted, the receiver must know the goods were stolen at the time he receives them and had the intent to aid the thief – both true in Jasons case and he posted a large amount of evidence of his guilt on the web. Being a journalist doesn’t make you immune to criminal prosecution and if this goes to trial he will probably spend time in jail due to the large amount of evidence he posted online.
I’m seeing a lot of anger about Apple’s practices. What I’m not seeing is what it is that Apple has a monopoly over that would merit an antitrust action.
I get what you are saying but I don’t think this antitrust talk will go anywhere. On the Flash issue, you pretty much make Apple’s case for them when you say, “Flash isn’t going away any time soon”. By admitting that you are admitting that Apple’s antiFlash stance does nothing to hurt Flash in the real world. And by admitting that HTML5 will soon be standard making flash useless, you are simply saying Apple is ahead of the curve by not supporting it.
On the issue of Apple attacking Android…well, let’s be honest. Apple relies more on design and appearance to sell a lot of these gadgets. And the android touch phone is clearly a blatant Iphone rip off in a lot of ways. So by attacking the android phone, Apple is simply trying to fight off copycats who couldn’t be bothere to come up with their own ideas. I doubt Apple’s case will go anywhere, but I would probably do the same in their place.
Finally, the missing 4g…I agree with you on this issue. Apple went overboard on the police enforcement. They SHOULD have come down heavy on the dumbass who lost the product in the first place.
**Sarcasm alert in case your head is that far up it**
Let’s fend to raise up so the government can bring back 5.25″ floppies while we’re at it. Mac killed those remember? …and iMac killed 3.5″ floppies too. Remember how much crap Apple got for sticking their necks out then? In fact, in 1983, Apple held a greater marketshare of PCs then the iPhone does with smart phones today. You guys were alive in 1984, right?
Let’s write our congressmen and senators to investigate those no-brainers too.
I’m sick and tired of their macho head games.
Can someone please explain the problem with dictating what and what can’t be used on your product? The iPhone, iPad and the like are not open source. If you don’t like it…don’t buy it.
Can you play XBOX games on PS3? Of course not. It’s proprietary.
Most of all, do we really want to turn Apple into another Microsoft where any joe blow can make a bloated app and completely degrades the quality of the OS?
I don’t want that.
To answer your questions specifically, ultimately Apple already has the final say as to what apps are given authorization into the app store, and I think that should be enough dictating what can and can’t be used on your product. Apple has chosen to reject all apps that arent html/javascript/objectiveC, based solely on coding language, and not on content or performance, which should be the true measure of an app’s worthiness. If an app that was created in flash, that performs with the speed and responsiveness that is expected of native apps, if it doesn’t cause an excessive drain on the battery & OS, and if it has quality content, why shouldn’t it be approved?
The fact of the matter is, the app store and its approval process is complete crap. This is well documented. And that’s where this problem arises.
“Most of all, do we really want to turn Apple into another Microsoft where any joe blow can make a bloated app and completely degrades the quality of the OS?”
Apples doesn’t have a standard that they claim, they do everything as they see fit, whatever will suit their agenda first. They only care about their bottom line, not the developers than made the app store what it is. That’s what has everyone pissed off. You can’t say any joe can make an application and that’ll ruin the quality of the OS. It is the consumers fault for purchasing poor software and installing it, whether it be on windows or mac. And the point of the app approval process is suppose to be to weed out the substandard apps. Which again goes back to being on the fault of apple for their poor execution of said process.
“Can you play XBOX games on PS3? Of course not. It’s proprietary.”
As for your example, game manufacturers use converters to go from platform to platform. Most don’t code 4 different games to release them on all major systems (PC/PS3/360/Wii). So your example isn’t valid. Developers want to use the same kind of logic. Produce one product, and publish to multiple platforms. That’s what this is all about. Adobe wants to be able to publish content to multiple platforms. Apple wants them to be platform specific.
Don’t get it twisted, this is about a lot more than “flash” on the iphone/ipad. Consumers want to have the option to chose, what they can and can’t do, esp when it comes to the internet, i think this is the real reason everyone debates about flash/no flash. Since it seems like they are both doing fine without flash.
It’s not just poorly-written Flash apps that drain battery life and cause poor performance; it’s the Flash runtime itself. Even a “Hello World” Flash app would cause this excessive resource use — even when that app is idle. ;)
I think the performance/battery argument is extremely convenient for Apple’s ends, but it does have merit.
Wow when I first started reading this I thought it was satire, first I don’t know how much you don’t know about the mac platform to of had that much trouble with wifi, I ran a 10,000 system network over 13 locations on a cisco wifi network without a hitch so you loose credibility there. The new dev agreement bans intermediary translation layers, you can still use different tools you just have to program in an accepted language. There is nothing stopping a dev from creating an identical app on a different platform this is simply a matter of dev’s wanting the biggest reward for the least effort. I do develop for the iphone OS and I use xcode and have from the start as it is the best tool for the job, if I decide to develop for android I will use the best tools for it and if it means learning a new language to produce the best product then so be it. Lets face it this is really about adobe wanting to sell it’s software to wanabe iphone dev’s too lazy to learn to do it right.
Agreed. Adobe is really coming across as a kid have a temper tantrum. It’s sad.
Kudos and well said. That is exactly what the whole ruckus is all about.
F Fuentes said “In any case, I believe Apple is well within the right to tell developers they can’t use a thrd (sic) party software to develop for the platform. It’s a good busines (sic) decision”
This was Microsoft’s argument in the 1990′s, it did not fly with antitrust laws then, and my guess is, as Apple gets bigger, it won’t fly for them either.
Until there is a reasonable alternative to flash, I’d rather not see it die. Just in the casual/social game space alone, flash is huge & keeps a lot of people employed. Do you really think for a second that even if flash was perfect Apple would let them onto the platform? Honestly. I love Apple products, but Corporate America is Corporate America. They wouldn’t be in business, let alone at the top of the food chain if they didn’t push the envelope. Someone has to check them, that’s the natural order of things. Thank goodness it is, because is seems some people here have been sipping the kool-aide a bit, and are all for letting things run amuck. Businesses are in business to make money, not make sure consumers get taken care of. Given the cause of our current economic climate, you’d think people would be a little more careful with who they throw the reigns at.
The “Crime” has been well documented, Let me spell it out clearly: It is illegal under California Law to do ANYTHING with found property other than return it to the owner or give it to the Police.
Chen not only knowingly BOUGHT stolen property, he knew what it was, who’s it was, and didn’t give a good gosh darn. Then he may well have committed a second crime in revealing Apple’s protected trade secrets by dissembling the thing and posting pictures of it and it’s innards on the web. NONE of which did he have their release to do. This nonsense thinking that reporters can do whatever they want is just that. The shield law is not there to protect them from their own criminal deeds, it is to allow them to protect the identities of their sources from Police.
On to Flash: 3 words for you: “Lowest Common Denominator” tells you everything you need to know about Flash developers, and speaks well to Adobes product development in general. If your business is dependent on creative works made in their products and you are the IT support it = a big bag of hurt. They suck, their software support sucks, their inability to build native apps that actually take advantage of your platforms advancements sucks and quite frankly, most flash heavy websites SUCK.
As for your IT experience, well that is doubt to me too. Obviously you are not a critical thinker. The majority of trouble in mixed networks isn’t about Apple, it’s about windows and their proprietary formats and technologies. Putting macs onto Active directory and managing users is quite trivial these days. They are not quirky at all, no more so than any other computer running any other OS. If you don’t know what your doing, that’s your fault.
Tell me why does Microsoft Office: Mac still not have network support, the issues are well documented going back to office 97, yet they persist. How about that craptastic proprietary database Entourage stores mail in? How about the outlook web access that only is full featured on Windows in IE, yep more proprietary MS garbage. How about the god awful docx format and the stupid converter you need to open those docs in office? Yep MS doing what they do best, proprietary lock in.
There is so much Apple is doing right, they ain’t changing anytime soon, and I’m glad. Why don’t all you haters go back to defraging your hard-drives and update your spyware and antivirus protection, enjoy your Android phone (just don’t expect to be able to upgrade) play your time killing waste of life Flash games and just don’t buy Apple products? You can enjoy your pitiful existence, maintain your illusion of control and be safe in your non-sense, non-truthful thoughts on Apple. Apple was fine before you, they will be fine after you.
I don’t really care. I jailbroke my ipod touch within hours of getting it. Fuck apple’s draconian fat cat limitations.
I got to wonder how someone like Jacob Friedman can be a tech blogger when he seems to not understand the law, understand business nor understand the technology involved here.
You are right Greg, he comes across as a biased, heavily opinionated noob. He certainly doesn’t have a grasp on Apple technology, nor does he seem to offer an opinion based on reason, facts nor experience. I’m sure our comments will be scrubbed.
One last observation: If Flash is so good, why then are major websites abandoning it in droves moving towards open standards? Are you all really so niave as to think that Apple just called them all up and told them to and they all just said ok?
OR maybe, they are tired of ADOBE holding the cards, maybe they want to be compatible with all of the web. Maybe they are tired of supporting flash in their development. Maybe they are tired of Adobes support, Maybe it’s because the proprietary web days are over.
Remember Apple didn’t tell Adobe to get off the mac, they told them they could develop flash using their own api’s and that they couldn’t use their development tools to write code for the os x mobile devices. Perhaps if Adobe had actually be able to produce a working flash app in the four years iphone has been on the market this wouldn’t be an issue. And maybe someday Adobe will really release a fully native product on the mac, then again, probably not. They seem to find it much easier to cry about how million lines of code they have and how it can’t be done, yet here we are ten years on OS X and it still ain’t done. Go figure, I’m sure Apple is just being “Draconian”..
Name one major site? NYTimes? they have a an app because they were forced…Youtube? sure i tried loading some of my favorite videos on the iPad and over half didn’t work…All rich sites are Flash based you’re ignorant.
HTML5 is pure crap in its current form. It’ll take years and years before it can do what flash does.
Please elaborate.
But realize that HTML5 on its own is not what it’s all about. HTML5 is merely one piece of a larger evolution of technologies…. JavaScript engines are becoming faster, browser DOM support is getting more advanced, SVG is starting to play a larger role. It’s not just HTML5, it’s the combination of all of these evolutions that makes Flash unnecessary.
Bit of a tossup for me. Not sure what the difference is between having to use Apple tools to develop on an Apple device, versus using NIntendo tools to develop on a Nintendo device. In fact, every nintendo divice, the sony ps3, and the xbox all make you use the tools provided by the company that made the product. Developing on an Apple product is also a lot cheaper than if you wanted to do the same on lets say a PS3.
Now of course id rather have this not be happening at all, but, I think we should look at how development on similar devices is being handled.
I myself do not miss seeing flash on my devices, as bringing up a page with a heavy flash can bring my Core i7-3gigs of ram-Windows 7 machine to its knees while its loading. That, and those stupid ads that have sound with them..
I have been passionate about Apple products for 15 years and have wanted to play a larger role in encouraging people to switch to Macs and the iPhone. Despite the meager effort I’ve put in, several people and families have followed my advice and have been very happy with the outcome.
I, too, have felt that I needed to re-evaluate the direction that Apple is coming from. It has left a bad taste in my mouth, but today I realized something… I can do one of four things (1) ignore it and try to avoid arguments with people; (2) stand behind Apple 100%; (3) stand against Apple and never buy any of their products; or (4) stand my own, use Apple’s excellent solutions, but also help to influence the changes that I feel are necessary by participating and sharing my experiences.
Option #4 is the most exciting. I get all the benefits of Apple’s solutions without selling out to their ways and being blind to any mistakes they may be making. At the end of the day, I’m making a conscious choice about how to participate and behave as a consumer. I feel that’s the best approach.
When did (a select few of you) get so entitled? We’re talking electronic products… Just ‘cuz something irritates you or think someone’s ego needs to be taken down a peg doesn’t mean the government needs to save you from your own inability to distinguish what it means to be a privileged consumer from someone who’s rights were violated.
So [Insert Luxory Car Maker Here] doesn’t want [Insert Widget Maker Here] to use their own tools to make steering wheels for said car manufacturer in order to control the look & feel and not dampen the steering experience of their car. What’s the big deal?
Look at the video game console market each platform provides their own tools and SDK’s. Why should Apple let third parties make tools for A platform they spent Billions to create. Adobe can make their own OS and hardware just acquire the right ppl. If I want to view flash add on a tint mobile screen I’ll buy another phone. There are plenty of options and competitors
Adobe needs to shut up and re-write flash so it’s optimized to run on Mac’s and Mobile. Of they want to be on the iPhone they need to get their act together. Apple has the right to refuse software the hurts the user experience, bogs performance down, and drains batteries.. Users don’t want flash ads. As for video, content providers can provide alternative codecs. Flash apps use features that are the least common denominators across all platforms, that hurts the developer and platform as the apps are not uniquely tailored for their device. Adobe is slow to add new features when Apple adds them and don’t optimize their software. If they did that Flash on mac os x would run great. They are just lazy.
Adobe flash player runs perfect on my macbook pro
What a load of BS. There are plenty of reasonable gripes to stick to Apple, this writer unwittingly manages to avoid all of them in favor of uninformed and inconsistent dribble.
Flash doesn’t run on *any* mobile platforms to date. Yet there are mobile platforms other than Apple. How this all Apple’s fault, exactly?
Secondly, if the author is indeed responsible for the administration of any quantity of computers, how does he not understand the inherent complications of 3rd party run times? Yes! Give me hundered-user environments without user policies or restrictions! Sounds fantastic.
Finally, on the premise of the “FCC” investegation. First, there is the precedent. Scads of game console developers have used this MO for YEARS. Nobody said shit. Secondly, Apple has…. um, I think about 25% of the smart phone market.
Sorry kids. There are alternatives. If Apple only has 25% of the market, how are they “forcing” that other 75% to abide by their platform restrictions? Enlighten me, anyone, please.
Oh really? well how come i have flash on my phone?! sarcasm maybe?
As to answer you read my comment.
Let me explain 2 or 3 things:
1-First About flash: I suggest you people to not get fooled by Jobs words, sure flash is buggy on some circumstances but overall on my laptop or my Phone which HTC HD2 I’ve got no problems even with websites that requires advanced flash and silverlight while using skyfire on my phone. this is not the point, the point is apple want total control on it mobile app store because CS5 and flash application would open the room for more free and multiplatform applications and that is forbiden because apple holds 99.5% of the payable apps on the app store.
On the same note by not allowing application as the CS5 (adobe) developers are forced to use apple based hardware and software to make software and this is where it becomes more tricky, because developers can’t ignore this market as being the biggest and most profitable, and thus the Antitrust problems, apple is abusing it dominant position.
2-Now to my second point, Microsoft had been sued for similar reasons, at least here in europe, compararing microsoft car to apples makes the first one looks like an angel. allow me to explain: M$ was sued because of it preinstalled operating systems on pcs and especially for the IE even if it was possible to put another internet navigation soft or another OS and it did allow windows to be used on other machines, this did gave M$ apps an advantage over the competition.On the other hand apple does the same thing and even worse, for exemple you are not allowed to use the OSX on another system and you cannot instal ANY other internet navigating system on the Iphone(except for Opera if i m not wrong)….
There is alot and i can’t write everything and hopefully you can understand my “engrish” as english is not my native langage
The only thing worse than the anticompetitive business practices of Apple and the arrogance of Steve Jobs is the retarded cult of macists!
I for one will make sure I will never hire any mac user in my media business ever again after having a gut full of the cult of mac religious mantra.
You are sick sick people and you need psychological help quickly.
First of all- Walmart and Apple are analagous- how?
Secondly, the reasons for not wanting Flash make god sense to me. And if you really want Flash buy a different phone. HTML5 may not be ready just now, but when Apple dropped the SCSI (Is that right- I’ve even forgotten how to spell it!), no one complained for long. Same with firewire, etc. This world is moving so fast and at the moment Apple is showing the way. But have you noticed how hard others are trying to develop App Stores? and vertically integrated systems. Nothing about Apple’s product line is monopolistic, as opposed to Microsoft Offices role previously, which really was. Open Office and, yes, event the Apple Pages, Keynote and Numbers are making real inroads at last, and I even like using them!
Anyone who supports Apple is a faggot, there, I said it.
First of all, I am not an apple fanboy but I love apple products. I think they are the best alternative in most of the categories. And the obvious reason behind this is they control everything. Their computers work well because they make both the hardware and software.
I don’t like the way apple is imposing dev agreement and its other policies but at the time, if it is the best way to keep the quality up, I have to accept it. I don’t want as a consumer to go find the non buggy app to buy. I want things to work.
That being said, I don’t really want apple become next Microsoft in some send which might happen. Their products are great and so far ( before this iphone crap) their products gave users a relative acceptable level of freedom. But when they start to be more popular they will care less and less to improve the quality like MS. Why bother when people have to use your products. That is something that can be happening. Remember when Jobs said ” go buy andriod if you like porn” it shows sort of we don’t care expression.
Meh.
If you don’t like the product, don’t buy it. Nobody is forcing an iPhone/iPad and the App Store down your throat. It’s not as though Apple has the market cornered on cell phones and mobile devices.
On the other hand, if you can’t resist the shiny Apple goodness, then you should do so knowing what you’re getting into.
I’m sick of reading posts by people who *want* an iPhone, but complain about Apple’s practices. Either accept them or go buy a shiny Android device. That is all.
I had a dream last night that I had lunch with Steve Jobs. I lied to him and told him I liked his computers, although I’m not sure why I dreamed that b/c I don’t mind Macs that much…
Maybe Adobe isn’t interested in alienating almost 1/2 of their market? CEO temper tantrums (on both Adobe and Apple) aside, not making Photoshop or other CS5 products for the Mac would be an incredibly stupid business decision
I’d like the author of this to explain to me how borrowing apple’s patents prevents innovation.
Also, the shield law is invalid in this case.
While, you are at it explain to me how Chen, or the finder made a reasonable attempt to return it. Now to tell me again how the warrant was invalid.
Because you are uninformed, and ignorant. Chen is a member of press and such warrants can not be applied to members of press, period.
What does that mean – you’re saying members of the press cannot be served warrants?
Yeah, Apple def needs to loosen up.
You can’t have it both ways. If you allow patenting then expect that the holder of the patents will use them to retain their market share (that is the whole point of the patenting system). Apple invented the phone app business model. Google is merely copying it.
As for Apple vs Adobe, its a non event. The only people that seem to be upset are people that don’t own Apple iPads, iPhones or iPods. As for developers moving to Android in droves I don’t see it happening. They will stay where there money is developing for the platform with the largest market share. If Adobe CEO announced tomorrow that they were going to withdraw Adobe CS from the Mac platform he would be looking for a job by the end of the day.
As for the Gizmodo next gen iPhone story they broke the law….. end of story.
“Apple invented the phone app business model” WTF weren’t there apps for Palm fricking 10 years ago???
i agree! =)
Dear WTF, your post just shows us you don’t know jack shit about this field and are not worth listening to. Well done.
Plle did not start the investigation against Chang. They can’t, the DA has to. Apple did not break into the house, noone did. Shield laws do not protect you from criminal investigation if you committet a crime.
As far as Adobe promoting development of iP*-Apps via flash goes: It’s against the interests of apple and against the interests of apple’s customers to allow such applications to be written. They can’t take advantage of the technology developed by apple of their plattform exclusively. They will only fit the least common denominator of flash and iP*.
Adobe fights to be the provider of the one and only API, a successor to Win32. Apple does not want them to be just that on their plattform because Apple wants to be in charge of their own plattform.
Everyone else (Google, Microsoft, HP-Palm…) will propably side with Adobe because they hope to be able to leach some dearly needed Apps that would be written for Apple but crosscompiled for them as well if it’s cheap.
Me? I hope Apple wins on this one.
You can’t really blame Apple for their patent practices and tight business model. They’ve been raped once before, don’t forget.
They were raped because they did not protect their software with licensing at all like all other companies that licensed their software but not apple
Bull. “Abusing position as market leader” of what? They have what, perhaps 16% market share of the smartphone category and < 1% of all handsets worldwide. Rounding error. Now, they do have 100% market share of the not-crap smartphone category but that's more the fault of the competitors than AAPL.
This author is a fool and should not be allowed to write ever again. Flash just sucks and I don’t miss it. Adobe products keep on getting worst with age. At least Apple is willing to stand up and protect its products from the crap that the world is make, in turn protecting the individual.
Flash must DIE
For any jackass that talks shit on flash and says it must die, etc.
Program me a 3D website like heinz.com using “HTML5″ and do it faster then I can using Flash. If you can do that, then we’ll talk.
I have been a flash developer since flash version 4. Don’t confuse the ease of use of flash (which enables incompetent programmers/companies to make crap) for flash being crap.
If I buy a computer I expect to be able to run whatever the fuck code I want to on it, including my own. I bought the damn thing. I shouldn’t have to obtain permission to run my code on my computer from anyone.
Whilst I am not a huge fan of flash in general, your last paragraph there sums it up for me!
The bottom line is once a business gets to the top of their respective food chain, they protect their model/service/product with patents. However, Apple’s recent move to actively stymy support for an industry standard (Flash is found in almost any/all websites) is definitely a move at trying to move business in another (quicktime?) direction. I think it is reasonable for people to be worried that a computer (iphone, ipad, etc) is designed to actively deny the use of a particular service that is so widespread. Does anyone remember how pissed Apple was when Adobe started making their suite for Microsoft? I have a feeling Apple has decided to flip that scenario a bit. They can’t diversify their model without controlling it, so they are instead showing Adobe they can affect them by not including them. Google is not copying Apple. Everyone is copying Apple. Google has just had a more robust idea in place. I think its awesome.
Posting in these comments: Apple fanboys.
Sounds like a whole lot of misconceptions, incorrect information, and FUD which is weird in this age of information.
All patents are available to be looked at online, it would be nice if you commenters would actually look at them first. Patents made which are so broad such as UI.. now like they patented what UI is. No one else can make a UI without them being able to sue. Or another one for movement based gestures. Unlocking a screen using gestures (btw typing in a code is a gesture). List scrolling. The ability to reduce power to a processor to save power. Object-oriented graphical system… all of them. Object-oriented multitasking.
etcetc the list goes on and on. These are so general, so broad that if anyone tries to do anything on any device anywhere they can get sued. Technically Apple has the patents to sue ANYONE that has a graphical UI right now, windows, linux, etcetc.
Apple is trying to force on their users what they can and cannot have on their phones. This is the exact behavior that got Microsoft sued. They are actively trying to disallow some companies from doing business with their products and giving deals to other companies. This is nearly the definition of antitrust.
I love my iphone, I love my ipod, I love my mac. But due to this INSANE mobile stuff, I have actually had to split Apple into two companies, the Apple Computers and Apple Mobile. Apple Computers is great….. Apple mobile should BURN. I will personally be switching from my babysat phone and hardly functional network to a much better network and an Android phone. Apple, stop being the guy you rallied against when you were young and a “rebel”, you no longer are young, stop trying to act like it, and get back to your founding principles and stop trying to act like M$.
A warrant is invalid if not followed to the letter of the law regarding it’s contents. No different than a traffic ticket with the wrong date on it. The type of warrant used was not applicable to a entering a journalist’s residence/office and not enforceable based on the time of the warrant. Apple is part of the oversight committee responsible for the type of police enforcement that made this warrant. Apple is responsible for the warrant and I believe it was an abuse of power. As for Adobe, it’s Flash software is widely used. It can be considered a standard across the web. Apple is saying it doesn’t like the standard. Is this any different than Microsoft with it’s Internet Explorer. They both want to control how the web is used. Microsoft faced anti-trust lawsuits and lost in both Europe and North America. Apple should face the same scrutiny.
You’re entitled to you opinion, misguided as it may be, but at least get the factual portion correct.
“Reports state that the US Federal Trade Commission and the US Department of Justice will be starting antitrust proceedings against Apple for anti-competitive practices”
Um, no. Reports say that these agencies may be launching an antitrust inquiry. Big difference. They launch an inquiry which is literally asking a few questions. Depending on the answers they get they may launch an investigation. At the end of the investigation, if there’s sufficient evidence they could launch legal proceedings.
So we’re at the point where an unnamed source says that somebody may ask a few questions that may or may not lead to additional questions that may or may not (years down the road) lead to legal proceedings.
It’s about time!!! As a victim of the “Blue Screen” problem on the imac, “O” yes we can fix it for you but the repair will cost as much as a new imac. Top prices for substandard components in this product .
Can I just say I LOVE watching the Apple fanbois get all twisted up over this. They insist that the iPhone 4G was stolen. They insist anyone who thinks the iPad is lame is a Microsoft fanboy. (Sorry guys, there is no such thing as MS fanboy, no really, only Ballmer and Gates get hyped up MS, the rest of the world is indifferent.)
I love how they insist Apple had nothing to do with the warrant issued. (Sorry fanbois, the DA only acted because Apple called them to report a crime, and NO a douchebag leaving his prototype in a bar is NOT a crime, it is just stupid, his negligence does not mean it was stolen, and Apple will lose this case, guaranteed, I am married to an attorney and have talked to a dozen lawyers about this, not one of them thinks Apple will win anything.)
So keep whining Apple fanbois, I am really enjoying it.
I don’t see any whining by Apple fanbois here (please point it out), but I do consistently see weak, inaccurate, and poorly thought out arguments by the anti-Apple crowd.
I don’t think anyone here has said that Apple “had nothing to do with the warrant issued”. Obviously the police only issued it in response to Apple’s stolen property complaint. Rather I think people are trying to counter claims that make it sound like Apple tells the police what to do, and how to do it, for example: “Apple is responsible for the warrant and I believe it was an abuse of power.” Apple is responsible for alleging theft. The DA is responsible for deciding whether and how to investigate. The police are responsible for serving and servicing the warrant.
As for your comment “and NO a douchebag leaving his prototype in a bar is NOT a crime, it is just stupid”, I couldn’t agree more – it is a stupid claim. Who ever said that leaving a phone in a bar is a crime anyway? Seriously, where did you get that? What is a crime, and has been since 1872 in California, is leaving a bar w/ someone else’s property, not returning it, and not turning it into the police. Also, it may be a crime to then sell that stolen property. Also, it may be a crime to purchase that stolen property.
What is it that your lawyer friends think Apple won’t “win”? What are they trying to “win”? The DA might “win” his case, if there even ends up being a case. There isn’t yet any civil case here to “win” or lose. What are you talking about?
Also, I’m curious how it is that your lawyer friends (seemingly) don’t think that the guy who kept the phone didn’t commit theft, and that the buyer’s aren’t guilty of purchasing stolen goods, when the law seems so clear on both points? Quite seriously, if they have some good arguments here, please share because it seems pretty cut and dry.
LOL, Chris, your posts are the EPITOME of whining Apple fanboi talk. Seriously, dude it is funny.
The marketing geniuses that came up with the “1984″ super-bowl commercial for Apple must be spinning in their cubicles when they see the nasty fascist beast that this company has become.
I keep hearing people saying apple restricts 3rd party development to keep quality high in the app store (part of the reason anyways). But I venture to say a lot of the apps already in the store are of crap quality and useless anyways. So I think that argument is silly.
Uh, “Finally, Apple’s recent behavior concerning the iPhone leak has been outrageously heavy-handed.”?
Jacob: Name ONE thing that Apple has done in this case that’s heavy handed. Just one. Come on – should be easy.
Let’s see they:
1) Asked for their stolen phone back from Gizmodo (oooooh, now that’s outrageous!)
2) Reported the phone as stolen to the police (my god, that’s heavy handed right there!)
3) The roommate of the alleged theif claims that some other folks claimed that they were from Apple and asked to look around the apartment – a story as yet unverified (if it happened, it was probably private investigators, hardly unheard of for a company tracking down the felony theft of such a valuable item)
What, exactly, have they done that’s so heavy handed? Er, outrageously “heavy-handed”?
Seriously, what? WHAT?!
OK, since you can’t do that, just explain this statement about Apple “trying to rage-kill the guy that found the phone, and yet they did it anyways”. How? We’ve all read up on this story and I can’t think of anything that Apple has done that even remotely fits this statement of yours. Enlighten me. Please.
You seem to be blaming routine investigative work by the police on Apple.
How, exactly, is Apple responsible for influencing routine police work? Yes, they are on the board that advises that task force, but so what? That’s a strategic role (along w/ many other companies) not some tactical group that micro-manages.
For your claim to be reasonable, you should at least show how the police’s handling of the search seemed extraordinary – unique to this case (and somehow directly influenced by Apple).
Also, your statement that the warrant was invalid is premature and overly certain. There are plenty of precedents for the police and the courts legally obtaining journalistic evidence when investigating a crime (e.g. the felony theft of the phone). Shield laws do not protect journalists from the investigation of any and every crime they might commit (murder, drug dealing, etc.). If the search warrant were somehow related to an effort to punish or intimidate Chen for what he published, then there would be something serious to talk about. So far it seems totally related to the theft.
To me, your line of thinking seems weak, unsubstantiated, and ridiculous.
The reason we have patents is to protect those who innovate first. Why is Apple always getting bad press about this? They, led and now others try to follow by copying. They issued patents to protect the IP they develop so that they can dominate and make more money. That’s the whole point.
And this whole issue with flash, the more they control their ecosystem, the more they can guarantee a superb user experience. Want to be all things to all people, and let anyone develop anything for your platform? One word > Windows. Flash is buggy. On my 6 year old iBook G4, H.264 HD video through Quicktime plays no problem. H.264 SD video through flash, plays like a horrible slideshow at 1-2 frame per second at best. Even on my brand new Macbook Pro, flash video is still choppy and stumbles. Why on earth would Apple want this on their new devices? It’s their devices, it’s their platform, and it’s their ecosystem and elegant tie-in to iTunes.
My opinion – they can do whatever they want, and I’ll keep buying it so long as the user interface and experience is 2nd to none – and that’s exactly what it is and will be for some time to come.
And on my (as you name it) “crappy windows experience” I run flash just fine.
As to “their” eco-system, that’s what Microsoft used to say, and that’s what fucktards like you used to argue against.
My opinion? It’s my computer no one tells me what to run, be it an Apple fanboy twerp or some big brother company like Microsoft (and Apple is trying to achieve as of late).
I will be surprised if this supposed anti-trust action was pursued and astonished if it succeeded as Apple is not selling a product that is a monopoly in any market or market segment (with the possible exception of the iPod but I can’t see any monopoly practices there).
Apple’s approach to the App store and the banning of cross platform development tools should be seen in the context of the fundamental revolution currently taking place in the realm of computing and information technology. This revolution is the move from the desktop to the mobile device as the primary computer technology and it is associated with a closely related secondary revolution which is the move from the mouse/keyboard interface to the finger/touch interface. We are at the beginning of this revolution and there is everything to play for, by the time the revolution will have run its course the old desktop computing configuration will still exist but will be a minor player (in economic terms) compared to the mobile space. All the big bucks in the next five to ten years are going to be made in the mobile space (compare HP’s total revenues and profit margins on PC sales to Apples revenues and margin’s on iPhones).
In this new mobile space the first major player out of the gate was Apple – for many reasons, including Steve Job’s willingness to see and embrace the new, its very strategic and cohesive corporate management and the way the company has always had expertise in developing software and hardware into new devices. Apple’s first move into this new phase of computing was the iPod and since then Apple has systematically rolled out one iDevice after another building a huge and profitable presence in the new mobile sphere. So far the only other major player to follow them has been Google. Microsoft is nowhere and its dependence on the old desktop monopolies will almost certainly mean it will be a marginal player in the new mobile markets (but time will tell). HP have bought Palm because it can see the way the wind is blowing and so may be a player (time will tell).
Apple have the right industrial design skills, they have the best retail distribution and support apparatus for the new devices and they have tremendous corporate focus on strategic implementation, these factors have all helped Apple to succeed in the new mobile space. But the key factor in Apple’s success in this new mobile space is to build devices that ordinary consumers find attractive and easy to use. It sounds so simple but it is actually so very hard to do.
Apple have understood what consumers want. They want sleek design but they also want utterly dependable little devices which come on instantly, stay on for a long time running on batteries with the minimum of fuss, can be operated from day one with out reading a manual and (and this is one of the most important features) devices that are safe.
Safety is so important because the most wide spread consumer experience of the previous desktop phase of computing was of being not safe. Computers crashed all the time, data was lost, viruses attacked, purchased programmes were ridiculously expensive and often crap and often fucked up your computer. The whole experience for the huge majority of computer consumers (who are not techies or mac users) was a bad experience, a fearful and stressful experience. Who wants that in their pocket – its bad enough in the den or the office.
So the Apple approach to iDevice app development is to put a great big safety sieve on the whole process by being a gate keeper to all apps (except for those installed by the tiny minority of techies willing to hack their devices). Now iDevice consumers know they can easily download and install and uninstall endless inexpensive apps in almost complete safety. When was the last report of an iPhone app being sold that crashed the iPhone?
The result was the almost instantaneous and explosive appearance of an entirely new and huge market – the app market. Once consumers knew it was easy, cheap and above all safe to buy the apps they did so in their millions and bought billions.
Apple also knows that because the new mobile market is going to develop so incredibly fast (it really is going to be a tsunami of technical change in the next five years) and that in order to stay ahead of the game it must roll out a steady stream of iDevice upgrades (hardware and software and remember how closely they are intertwined) as well as new categories of iDevices. In order to do that it must be sure that the whole app developer ecosystem will follow and quickly implement the changes as they are rolled out, and support the new devices as they appear. Apple has given developers very good and relatively inexpensive tools to develop for the iDevices but Apple has a long history with much to learn from, and one recurring theme in that history is that when ever Apple has lost control of the development process to third parties it has suffered very badly. So now that it is supremely important at this moment of maximum business opportunity and threat, this moment of revolution, to ensure that the Apple iDevice ecosystem is the best and biggest the one thing it will not allow is a third party coming in and sitting between it and its developers. The disruptive threat is just too big.
Personally I have no problem with their approach. If people don’t like Apple devices they can buy a device built using a different system. Apple’s approach is not monopolistic (i.e. preventing other people selling better products though a domination of a market) but competitive (make better products and getting them to market first).
I hope they succeed because if the new mobile space ends up being just like the old tedious desktop space I think I would truly weep.
A History Lesson: We have all been here before.
What follows is taken from John Gruber at Daring Fireball – great example of the sort of past experience that is shaping Apples current position.
“One such “painful experience”, from Apple’s perspective, would be Metrowerks’s PowerPlant framework. PowerPlant was a GUI toolkit and application framework for the classic Mac OS, which shipped with Metrowerks’s CodeWarrior compiler and IDE. It was very good, and very popular — many popular Mac apps were built using the PowerPlant framework.
The problem came several years later, with the move to Mac OS X.1 PowerPlant wasn’t designed with Mac OS X in mind, and didn’t take advantage of Mac OS X’s latest advances. For example, Carbon Events support didn’t come to PowerPlant until 2004. There was no easy or straightforward way for PowerPlant-based apps to make the transition to best-of-breed native Mac OS X apps. Leaving Cocoa aside, PowerPlant apps couldn’t take advantage of the latest and greatest the Mac OS X Carbon APIs had to offer.
Now, the comparison isn’t quite apples-to-apples, because one of the biggest differences between classic Mac OS and Mac OS X is that classic Mac OS didn’t have a built-in One True App Framework like Mac OS X does with Cocoa. (And, it’s worth emphasizing that Carbon was a first class toolkit for Mac OS X for the first half of the decade — Cocoa wasn’t really officially positioned as the One True Framework until, arguably, WWDC 2007, when Apple abruptly cancelled 64-bit Carbon, which had been announced for Mac OS X 10.5 just 9 months earlier at WWDC 2006.) The Metrowerks developers who created PowerPlant couldn’t have foreseen Carbon and Mac OS X, let alone foresee Cocoa, and the Mac developers who decided to use PowerPlant weren’t spurning any sort of “No, this is what you should be doing” advice from Apple.
But because PowerPlant (a) was popular and (b) didn’t keep up with the latest platform advances in Mac OS X, it became an anchor attached to Apple, which slowed them down. Apple expended significant time, money, and effort trying to support PowerPlant developers and bring them forward to where Apple wanted to take the platform.
So my comparison here isn’t to say that PowerPlant was bad or that developers who depended upon it did anything wrong. Rather, it’s that Apple learned that there were significant risks to letting any technology get between Apple’s APIs and third-party developers. Apple couldn’t fix PowerPlant. They couldn’t port it to Mac OS X themselves. It was out of their hands, and Motorola (which bought Metrowerks in 1999) had other priorities.”
One thing heavy handed? Actually you are right, that is easy.
1. They retroactively changed a signed EULA for devs forcing everyone to use only their tools and language.
2. They reported a device stolen after the guy that found it tried to get it to the guy who lost it waiting over an hour in the bar for him to return, called Apple directly multiple times telling them he had the phone, and even sent e-mail to them.
3. Suing HTC instead of going after Google for Android “patent infringements”. “I know you didn’t make it, but we will sue you because it is easier and you are our only real competition.”
4. Telling ME what I can do on MY phone and what is suitable for ME on MY phone.
There are four right off the top of my head which are very heavy handed. Sure, it may “just be business” but that does not make it less heavy handed.
@len Apple hardly innovated anything currently on the iphone. Touchscreens and multitouch have been around for years, as have digital keyboards, cellphones, 3g, browsers, etcetc, matter of fact I cannot think of a SINGLE thing in the iphone that has not already existed. What Apple does it take existing technology, wrap it in a pretty sexy shell, simplify it, and rename it. They have done this with their insane patents, their service providers, and their products. I agree that it is their company they can do what they want, but I bought my iphone BEFORE the nazi bullshit started, before they changed the rules. That they cannot do.
I would like to also mention that your pc is probably completely jacked up and you need to have it serviced, or stop lying and saying your flash runs at 1-2 fps on a new laptop. Adobe Flash is a HUGE hunk of crap, and I will NOT be sad when it dies, at all, but I would like that to happen on its own, not some ego trip asshole TELLING me what to do.
@BobOki – Fail. The context was “Apple’s recent behavior concerning the iPhone leak has been outrageously heavy-handed” not “Anything Apple’s ever done that made you cranky.”
But I’ll take the bait and respond to your 4 ridiculous points.
1) The didn’t retroactively change a EULA. “EU” is for “end user” – this was a developer license agreement. But they didn’t retroactively change that either. They created a new one for future development that people could accept or not. It in no way impacted existing apps under the old developer license agreement.
2) Since it seems you’ve read up on this you should know from other articles that California law requires you to turn found items in to the police if you can’t reach the original owner. We don’t know if the alleged thief waited for an hour to return the phone or if he was merely there for another hour drinking beer anyway. He should have at least turned it over to the bartender. He didn’t contact Apple directly – his friend with AppleCare did. (By the way, if you drive away with someone’s Mustang, calling Ford Motor Company hardly seems like the right way to get it back to the guy who parked it.) He did not try and reach the guy who lost it even though he knew his name from his FaceBook account. He could have dropped it off at the Apple campus (a few blocks away) with the guy’s name on it. Not “being able to” return it to the owner does not then allow you to sell the goods that you left a bar with. Leaving a bar with someone’s phone and then selling it is theft in California. It’s a felony if the value is over $950.
3) You’re not making an argument about heavy handedness here at all. And the patent issue is covered well by other people in other posts, so I’ll stop there.
4) This comes across as really juvenile. You can’t hook up an HDTV to your Casio wrist watch – is Casio “Telling YOU what YOU can do with YOUR watch”? While it is technically feasible to put a mini DisplayPort on all Casio watches, the value to the customer (and risk to their brand etc.) doesn’t seem worth it, in Casio’s judgment. Assuming you’re alluding to Flash not being supported on iDevices, Apple can make similar judgments about battery life, risk of crashing, etc. that would impact their profitability, reputation, marketability, etc. You can choose to buy whatever phone you want. Apple didn’t take something away from you there – you never had it.
@Chris – Way not to get it at all buddy.
1. Yes, you are right on the EULA, it was the dev agreement, and it was retroactive, and Apple is pulling apps out of the store as they see fit.
2. We know he waited an hour, because the barkeep at the pub backed that up. He called Apple directly MULTIPLE times, which has been verified as he has ticket numbers. You are right, he very much should have taken it to the police, no argument there, and I also would not have taken it to Apple campus. I think the law states something crazy like you own it after something like 5 or 10 years, so no doubt it was a felony, to sell. I still think reporting the device stolen is a load of evil as it was NOT STOLEN.
3. You have said nothing to counter what I said. Saying it’s already been covered is a cheap cop out and you just look uninformed or lazy, take your pick.
4. My casio watch does not have the ability to play HDTV. So your analogy is horrible. A better analogy would be Casio telling me I can no longer use the timer to time farts, and actively trying to block me from doing so. Apple HAS taken something away from me, with every update. That is the ability to do whatever I want with my phone. Constant blocking of jailbrakes to allow me to use my phone, trying to PHYSICALLY brick the phone earlier, deleting apps that get popular that EA does not like then trying to have itunes delete them (I saved the ipa so FU ea). They block adult content on the phone, go after developers that try to help you free up some memory on the phone, and have even remotely wiped some phones in their time from people admitting they were jailbroken on the apple forums.
Say I don’t want to update to the latest firmware 3.1.3 (which by the way does not do ANYTHING but break the latest jailbrakes). If I wish to load any updates for programs I have to, because apple forces all new programs/updates that come out to only work with latest firmware.
So you can say what you would like, Chris, as to these issues being juvenile, but if these issues don’t come across to you as huge issues, then exactly what does Apple have to do to actually make you care?
Nothing Apple is doing is original it has been done by linux techs or microsoft or blackberry or symbian. Apple has just made the presentation look better. They never had a better device and they still don’t. They just have larger application porfolio and marketting techniques that tell the whole world that this is exclusive when it is not. The problem with every damn smartphone is battery life, there just is not enough juice for available with the current battery technology the manufacturers use. The problem comes is that apple has made the ownership of the device like it is renting. When you rent you need permission from the landlord to make any changes and do what you need in that home or office. What apple is doing selling you the house but telling you that this is just a rent you can’t do what you want. There is not real freedom for the end user of what he wants and on top of that apple keeps giving shitting excuses for things that work.
Wtf:
‘Apple invented the phone app business model. Google is merely copying it.’
No. Apple didn’t invent the Phone App business model. They were the first to make it successful. There were thousands of mobile apps before the app store on other platforms on WinMobile, Symbian, S40, S60, etc. Same with the mobile music player. What they do better than anyone else is in industrial design and UI design. They put the user experience first. They’re as guilty as M$ when it comes to copying other’s ideas, but they merely identify and strategize towards the monetizable part faster.
@BobOki (“Apple hardly innovated anything currently on the iphone”)
“Innovate”, it doesn’t mean what you think it means.
OMG there are a lot of apple fanboys in these posts. Its funny because these were the same people who cheered when Microsoft was taken to court over doing the same things apple is doing now.
I kinda agree regarding this issue of Apple.