FTC believed to be investigating Apple's anti-Flash stance
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has denied a Freedom of Information Act request for documents related to a complaint filed by Adobe against Apple, stating that the release of the information would impede the commission's "law enforcement" duties.
Nearly 200 pages of records regarding Adobe's complaint were requested by Wired this week, and rejected. Adobe filed the paperwork with the FTC after Apple announced it would not allow iOS applications ported from other languages or development environments, such as Flash.
The FTC justified its decision to keep the documents, stating that making them public "could reasonably be expected to interfere with the conduct of the Commission's law enforcement activities." The FTC said that 189 pages are related to the case, but the records are exempt from the FOIA request. The response strongly suggests that the FTC is currently conducting an investigation into the matter.
"The FTC never publicly confirms or denies when an investigation is open or closed, except when it sues or reaches a settlement with a company," author Ryan Singel wrote. "However, both Bloomberg News and the Wall Street Journal reported in May that the FTC had gotten a complaint from Adobe and opened a formal investigation."
The fight between Apple and Adobe came to a head after Adobe announced it would create an application that would allow developers to port software written to Flash to the iPhone. That software would allow developers to circumvent Apple's ban of Adobe Flash from iOS devices, including the iPhone and iPad.
But Apple changed its developer agreement, banning applications written in non-native languages and ported to the iPhone. That prompted Adobe to abandon development of its Flash-to-iPhone porting software, and file a complaint with the FTC.
Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs publicly commented on the matter in an open letter published in late April, in which he slammed Adobe Flash as a Web tool that is unfit for the modern, mobile era of computing. He also said that an intermediary tool for converting Flash applications to the iPhone would produce "sub-standard apps," and would hinder the progress of the platform.
Jobs said he knows from "painful experience" that allowing developers to become dependent on a third-party tool, such as Adobe Flash, rather than writing natively for the iPhone is restrictive. "We cannot be at the mercy of a third party deciding if and when they will make our enhancements available to our developers," Jobs wrote.
Nearly 200 pages of records regarding Adobe's complaint were requested by Wired this week, and rejected. Adobe filed the paperwork with the FTC after Apple announced it would not allow iOS applications ported from other languages or development environments, such as Flash.
The FTC justified its decision to keep the documents, stating that making them public "could reasonably be expected to interfere with the conduct of the Commission's law enforcement activities." The FTC said that 189 pages are related to the case, but the records are exempt from the FOIA request. The response strongly suggests that the FTC is currently conducting an investigation into the matter.
"The FTC never publicly confirms or denies when an investigation is open or closed, except when it sues or reaches a settlement with a company," author Ryan Singel wrote. "However, both Bloomberg News and the Wall Street Journal reported in May that the FTC had gotten a complaint from Adobe and opened a formal investigation."
The fight between Apple and Adobe came to a head after Adobe announced it would create an application that would allow developers to port software written to Flash to the iPhone. That software would allow developers to circumvent Apple's ban of Adobe Flash from iOS devices, including the iPhone and iPad.
But Apple changed its developer agreement, banning applications written in non-native languages and ported to the iPhone. That prompted Adobe to abandon development of its Flash-to-iPhone porting software, and file a complaint with the FTC.
Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs publicly commented on the matter in an open letter published in late April, in which he slammed Adobe Flash as a Web tool that is unfit for the modern, mobile era of computing. He also said that an intermediary tool for converting Flash applications to the iPhone would produce "sub-standard apps," and would hinder the progress of the platform.
Jobs said he knows from "painful experience" that allowing developers to become dependent on a third-party tool, such as Adobe Flash, rather than writing natively for the iPhone is restrictive. "We cannot be at the mercy of a third party deciding if and when they will make our enhancements available to our developers," Jobs wrote.
Comments
Enforcing laws, you mean.
Enforcing laws, you mean.
Which law?
Might also want to investigate Apple's anti Silverlight, Java, Cobol, VBScript, C#, Pascal etc stance...
What laws are you referring to? Apple isn't a monopoly and isn't anywhere close to controlling the smart phone space. Even with the iPhone 4 out, Android is kicking butt (200,000 a day now). And surfing on the Incredible can suck compared to my old iPhone because of the crappy Flash ads that are displayed. Why do we want that on our phones?
Which law?
No laws at all. Obviously the FTC is just making it up as they go along.
Sigh. You may have noticed that Intel just settled an antitrust claim with the FTC. And no, this does not require any finding that a company has a "monopoly" on anything. As even this brief article points out, an FTC investigation is not a conviction or even a set of charges. It is only an investigation. The vast majority of the time, they result in no further action or an agreement from the company to change practices which violate competition laws.
What laws are you referring to? Apple isn't a monopoly and isn't anywhere close to controlling the smart phone space. Even with the iPhone 4 out, Android is kicking butt (200,000 a day now). And surfing on the Incredible can suck compared to my old iPhone because of the crappy Flash ads that are displayed. Why do we want that on our phones?
Slightly off topic, but still related.
Did you turn the setting for Flash from "always run" to "on demand"? None of the Flash items show up on my browser (native and Dolphin HD) until I tap on them to allow them to run.
Slightly off topic, but still related.
Did you turn the setting for Flash from "always run" to "on demand"? None of the Flash items show up on my browser (native and Dolphin HD) until I tap on them to allow them to run.
Click to flash on an Android, great!
It's now been 3 full years since Apple took their anti-Flash stand. Flash is still not available on any platform (I don't think). I think it might soon be available on Android/Froyo. 3 years of bitching and the product still isn't ready. Wow. And yet they think they need to pressure the FTC.
That's a good point.
I'm interested to see if people who own an iPad have actually found the lack of Flash a problem?
I've had my iPad for three months now, and can only think of one occasion where it has prevented me from achieving what I wanted to (trying to buy a framed print on art.com) and that wasn't exactly something that couldn't wait until I got home to get on the Mac.
The more I use the iPad, the more I think this is just a total non-issue. If Flash is such a big part of the internet, I'm obviously looking at the wrong parts of the internet.
I'm interested to see if people who own an iPad have actually found the lack of Flash a problem?
Only very occasionally for me. Usually it's nothing more than a video posted to Facebook that I can't view, but nearly always don't really want to anyway. The FTC complaint isn't about the lack of Flash being problem for iPad owners, though. The complaint is an allegation that Apple's Flash ban is anticompetitive. The complaint seems bogus to me, and I'd be very surprised if the FTC didn't come to the same conclusion.
I know it will crash at times, but iOS isn't crashproof anyways. There will be battery drain, but that's to be expected. Just try to minimize it.
The whole world's gone koo-koo bananas!
no.. that would just be America!
NO 3rd party run time engines can be installed. There is no Adobe AIR, no Microsoft Silverlight, no Firefox, or Opera
It was the media that turned this into a Flash vs. Apple fight.
Actually it was Adobe that did this, by filing a complaint with the FTC.
Tip for people who are awake: there's a bounty in the Valley for anyone who can turn up a copy of an internal memo asking the staff to sit on that release until that date. I hear it's not a small amount.