Neil HughesCiting "people familiar with the situation," authors Thomas Catan and Yukari Iwatani Kane reported Tuesday that the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and Justice Department are both considering a formal inquiry into Apple for changes to its iPhone developer agreement. The potential antitrust inquiry was first reported Monday by the New York Post.
While the Post cited Apple's banning of intermediary development tools for App Store software, which has caught the ire of Adobe, the Journal said the interest from regulators has also stemmed from new language in the agreement that forbids iPhone software from transmitting analytical data. Existing mobile ad networks reportedly complained to regulators, and said the changes could give Apple's forthcoming iAd service a leg up by making it impossible for competitors to effectively target their advertisements.
The report said that Apple could "head off trouble" by revising the terms of its developer agreement and addressing the sections that have come under scrutiny, according to one person familiar with the situation.
Separately, the FTC has also inquired about iAd as it looks into Google's $750 million purchase of mobile advertising firm AdMob. Developers told the Journal that they were contacted by the FTC, and that the commission is looking into iAd as well as the Google-AdMob deal.
AdMob has also been asked about the iAd service in the course of the FTC investigation. In the last few months, Google has used iAd and Apple's $275 million acquisition of mobile ad firm Quattro Wireless as evidence that there is sufficient competition in the advertising market. The search giant has approached the strategy as rumors have suggested FTC staff will recommend the federal government block Google's purchase of AdMob for anticompetitive reasons.
Apple has seen increased scrutiny from the government in the last year, with the Securities and Exchange Commission having reviewed disclosures made by Apple about the health of its chief executive, Steve Jobs, and whether the company knowingly withheld information from shareholders.
The FTC also investigated potential antitrust ties between Google and Apple, an investigation that led Google CEO Eric Schmidt to resign from the Apple Board of Directors, while former Genentech CEO Arthur Levinson, who previously served on both boards, resigned from the Google Board of Directors last October.
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86 Comments
?pioneers get the arrows, settlers get the land¨
Well, I guess if the WSJ is reporting it, then it must be true that they are looking into an inquiry. This is only using the logic applied by some that the original story had to be bogus because it was in the New York Post. Unless this means we are supposed to group think the WSJ is a disreputable rag now too.
The iAds issue does seem to be worth looking into. I know the typical defense will be that Apple runs a closed ecosystem so anything the choose to do within that ecosystem is automatically right and that they are not a monopoly so again, nothing they do can be wrong. But those both seem simplistic.
I am confident that they won't be found to have done anything illegal or wrong, but it just seem poor form for Apple to simply shut out competitors in distinct sectors instead of competing with them. Apple is best when competing on merit. Simply preventing competitors from competing in discrete areas within the platform by using their control over the platform as a whole seems literally anti-competitive, though not legally anti-competitive.
Well, I guess if the WSJ is reporting it, then it must be true that they are looking into an inquiry. This is only using the logic applied by some that the original story had to be bogus because it was in the New York Post. Unless this means we are supposed to group think the WSJ is a disreputable rag now too.
It's not a rag yet, but since falling into Rupert's smothering grasp, its once-proud flag has been fraying badly at the edges.
"The FTC also investigated potential antitrust ties between Google and Apple, an investigation that led Google CEO Eric Schmidt to resign from the Apple Board of Directors, while former Genentech CEO Arthur Levinson, who previously served on both boards, resigned from the Google Board of Directors last October."
I wonder had this not occurred what would have happened? I assume Google were already planning to ape everything Apple was doing on the iPhone front so the split would have occurred anyway. Or would everyone still be good friends and no Android ... I doubt that.
It's not a rag yet, but since falling into Rupert's smothering grasp, its once-proud flag has been fraying badly at the edges.
Rupert certainly has a way with newspapers (and TV news come to that) doesn't he? I remember back when the Times in the UK, pre Rupert, was a respected newspaper! He brings a new meaning to phrase 'lowest common denominator".