Adobe Flash hampers competition and stifles innovation

May 3, 2010 Lazeez 6 comments

In an article today, the New York Post is reporting that Apple may face antitrust scrutiny for FTC, Justice for the changes it made to its iPhone developer agreement.

Supposedly, Apple’s addition to its developer agreement section 3.3.1, which prohibits apps developed with cross platform tools kills competition by forcing developers to choose between creating apps that run only on Apple’s platform or creating apps that run on all the other platforms, like Android and Windows Phone 7 and Blackberries.

According to a person familiar with the matter, the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission are locked in negotiations over which of the watchdogs will begin an antitrust inquiry into Apple’s new policy of requiring software developers who devise applications for devices such as the iPhone and iPad to use only Apple’s programming tools.

The way I see it, it’s cross platform tools like Flash CS5 application packager that hampers competition and stifles innovation.

Generally, people are lazy. Doubly so for application developers. Nobody would do the whole job if they can do a third of the job for similar results.

If a tool existed that allows developers to target all mobile platforms with one project, that tool would most likely be very popular with developers and could possibly become the dominant way of creating mobile apps.

If Adobe’s tool become wildly popular, then it would definitely stifle innovation and hampers the competition between mobile platform creators. If it were very popular (and there is nothing that stops it from being popular if it worked on the iPhone), then Flash would become the platform. Developers would move from writing apps for the iphone platform to writing apps for the Flash platform.

Imagine if such a scenario came to be, that Flash’s platform became very popular. In such a scenario, if Microsoft were to introduce a new version of their Windows Phone 7 platform with some unique and very advantageous features, then those features couldn’t be used by the developers using Flash until Adobe implements support for them, ditto for Apple, ditto for Android, and ditto for RIM. If one of the target platforms doesn’t implement those features, whether Apple’s iPhone, Google’s Android or RIM’s Blackberry, then Adobe can’t implement them in their Flash platform because they wouldn’t work on all the target platform.

That would stop Microsoft from gaining much by innovating because it will be held back by the Flash platform. It would stifle Microsoft’s innovation [can't help giggling at the expression ].

A popular Flash platform would remove all the advantages of one platform over the others. It would only work to stifle each mobile platform’s innovations.

If Apple were a monopoly, which they aren’t in the smart phone business, then maybe the government should stop them from affecting the viability of other platforms. But they aren’t. If the government were to interfere with Apple’s business at this point, then it would be giving advantage to their competition. Remember that a monopoly is something that doesn’t have an effective competition. If you were to read anywhere online, you would find that RIM sells more smartphones than Apple and that Android is gaining market-share very quickly. This means Apple is not a monopoly.

The government’s job is to protect people from the abuses of a monopolist. It’s not their job to ensure one company’s success at the expense of another’s. It’s not their job to ensure that Adobe’s proprietary Flash platform is successful at the expense of Apple’s iPhone. Until the iPhone becomes an actual monopoly, the government has no business interfering on behalf of one company.

Opinion Adobe Flash, Apple, competition, innovation

Comments

Written by Eric Chamberlain on May 3, 2010.

I don’t agree with this. It is Apple who is hurting innovation by controlling the developer tools. You can build with Flash on an open platform like Android. If you don’t like Flash at least you have the option to use whatever you like. Apple doesn’t allow that. Apple is such a control-freak company they don’t even allow their own customers the ability to choose if they want Flash or not. Apple doesn’t even allow you to change your own battery in your device, and you say that others are hurting innovation? Apple is brazenly attacking their own customers by going after Adobe. One of the main reasons people like to use Macs is because of creative ventures. They use Adobe apps for that. The Creative Suite is one of the most used tools, the apps are all integrated, and Apple is telling their own customers they can’t use Flash? You call that open? BTW, implying that Adobe is paying off the government to go after Apple is irresponsible slander. If you have proof, post it, otherwise show your dignity and retract the implication.
Written by Farrukh Jawed on May 3, 2010.

I disagree with you completely. If Apple allowed Adobe, there would have been more developers not developers shifting to Adobe.

It like if Microsoft allowed only Visual Studio to develop in windows. (which is not the case) but still if you want to use new features people resort to visual studio.

You are painting very romantic future that every one will move to adobe.
Written by Dave on May 4, 2010.

This line of reasoning is completely flawed. You are hypothesizing about what could possibly happen in the future (Adobe’s tool becoming wildly popular) and comparing that event to what current exists; Apple’s iPhone platform is wildly popular. The iPhone/iPad grasp on the market is already quite large and NOW Apple is trying to force all developers to use their tool.

The argument is not, “Use Apple’s tool vs. Use Adobe’s tool.” The argument is, “Use Apple’s tool vs. Use Any tool.” IF Adobe were to become the head-and-shoulders above the rest, preferred platform AND they placed unreasonable restrictions on their product THEN they might be in the same situation.

I see Apple’s restriction like this: Someone asks you to write a paper but instructs you that you HAVE to use Microsoft Word to write the paper. Pages can produce the exact same document, but this person is convinced using anything except Word will create a “sub-standard” paper. Yes, app development is much more complex than a memo to a coworker, but the concept is just as ridiculous.
Written by Lazeez on May 4, 2010.

@Dave

I see Apple’s restriction like this: Someone asks you to write a paper but instructs you that you HAVE to use Microsoft Word to write the paper. Pages can produce the exact same document, but this person is convinced using anything except Word will create a “sub-standard” paper. Yes, app development is much more complex than a memo to a coworker, but the concept is just as ridiculous.

Wrong analogy. Apple didn’t ask or contract any developers to write stuff for the iphone/ipad. Developers want in on a lucrative business. It’s like bidding on a contract with the government or a company. You want the contract, or you want the business, then you stick to certain guidelines. Apple isn’t forcing anybody to write software for the iphone. If you want in, you play by the rules. It’s Apple’s platform, so it’s Apple’s rules. You don’t like the rules, there are many more mobile platforms to write software for.

Remember the transition to the Intel architecture? Since 2003, Apple had been urging developers, including Adobe to use Apple’s tools for development. Developers that had moved to XCode before 2005 needed only to check a box in XCode and recompile to have their applications run natively on the Intel Macs. Adobe and Microsoft, because of their use of their own tools and others that were using the Code Warrior tools, couldn’t simply move and took years to support intel macs natively if at all.

What if Apple came out with a new processor that needed new binaries? They could easily add support in their own tools, but, then all the applications built using Flash would have to wait for Adobe to support this new binary that future gadgets from Apple would need.
Written by TGM on May 5, 2010.

Apple seem to have forgotton where they come from.

I wonder what’d happen to their core set of users if Adobe uprooted and pulled all their products from the Mac platform (Photoshop, Acrobat, Pagemaker anyone?)

Not a great future for a company that had graphic design as it’s niche.
Written by Beth on June 17, 2010.

It isn’t lazy to want to maintain and build one set of code for multiple environments, it is smart.
Adobe isn’t the one wanting universal control, that is all Apple all the time.

My Macinations

Adobe Flash hampers competition and stifles innovation

Comments

Leave a Comment

Recent Posts

Browse by Tags

Categories

Meta