The article asks "Why is the Federal Trade Commission threatening Apple with a possible lawsuit for abusing its economic power, but not even raising an eyebrow about the huge and growing economic (and political) muscle of JP Morgan Chase or any of the other four remaining giant banks on Wall Street?"
Reich wrote, "Our future well being depends more on people like Steve Jobs who invent real products that can improve our lives, than it does on people like [JPMorgan Chase chief executive] Jamie Dimon who invent financial products that do little other than threaten our economy."
If Apple is wrong on Flash, it will fail
"Appleâs supposed sin," Reich notes, "was to tell software developers that if they want to make apps for iPhones and iPads they have to use Apple programming tools. No more outside tools (like Adobeâs Flash format) that can run on rival devices like Googleâs Android phones and RIMâs BlackBerrys.
"Whatâs wrong with that? Apple says itâs necessary to maintain quality. If consumers disagree they can buy platforms elsewhere. Apple was the worldâs #3 smartphone supplier in 2009, with 16.2 percent of worldwide market share. RIM was #2, with 18.8 percent. Google isnât exactly a wallflower. These and other firms are innovating like mad, as are tens of thousands of independent developers. If Appleâs decision reduces the number of future apps that can run on its products, Apple will suffer and presumably change its mind."
If big banks go wrong, everybody fails
Reich notes that among the massive banks, "if one of them makes a bad decision it can take us all down."
"So why is the FTC nosing around Apple and not around Wall Street? Because the Federal Trade Commission Act allows the agency to stop 'unfair methods of competition' almost anywhere in the economy except in the financial sector. Banks are explicitly excluded. Another reason for financial reform."
Reich concludes, "Hands off Apple. But cut the big banks down to size."
Adobe seeking antitrust help to preserve its Flash monopoly
Adobe has recently intensified its complaints against Apple related to the company's refusal to distribute Flash. Adobe's strategy for using its Flash and AIR platforms to allow software to be written once and run on multiple devices is taking a beating by the iPhone OS' lack of support for third party plugin platforms, including Flash, AIR, Java and Silverlight.
Adobe chief technology officer Kevin Lynch recently described the current landscape as being like 19th century railroads, where "people were using different gauged rails." The problem for Adobe is that in the 19th century, that problem was solved by government decree that railroads adopt a free, open standard for interoperability, and not by forced adoption of a third party vendor's proprietary rail gauge.
Apple has already adopted HTML5 and related free, open web standards as the common rail gauge for web applications on the iPhone OS, even developing frameworks to assist in the creation of web pages that look and act like native apps.
At the same time, Apple also operates its native App Store as a custom, proprietary platform that operates on its own gauge, much like high speed rail, where interoperability with common rail traffic is not necessary or even desirable.
Adobe's Flash is a proprietary rail gauge of its own, and despite its monopoly over dynamic content on the desktop, it simply does not yet run on mobile devices.
In the video below, an Android prototype tablet is presented as running Flash, "unlike the iPad," despite crashing on an attempt to play YouTube videos. Like other iPhone OS devices, iPad plays YouTube without need for Flash.
42 Comments
Finally something reasoned to read.
Flash doesn't even run reliably on an Android tablet... I don't know how much good can come from Adobe giving their employees smaller Android phones running Flash.
Reich is a pretty smart guy. And cool too. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWliy...=youtube_gdata
"Adobe's Flash is a proprietary rail gauge of its own, and despite its monopoly over dynamic content on the desktop, it simply does not yet run on mobile devices."
Flash is a rusted out, tin lizzie, and if it ran on the iPhone it would only clog up the tracks. If Adobe's technical director spent half as much time getting his house in order instead of wining like a middle-school diva-wannabe who didn't get an invite to the cool party, then maybe they would have a product worth saving.
If Flash is the only metric the competition is using to make its case against the iPad, then god help them.
If Google releases a wooden box with a sundial on top THAT RUNS FLASH, they'll be touting how much better it is than an iPad. Reminds me of the days when critics thought the iPhone sucked because of its lack of cut-and-paste, one measly feature.