No Need for FTC on Apple vs Adobe

By Tommy Leung on 05/05/2010 in Politics

It may appear that I would be slightly biased in favor of Apple in this debate. I have just shipped an App Store title, Propaganda Lander, that Apple appears to like as they’ve featured it in their New and Noteworthy section under the Games category. I can assure you, I don’t know anyone at Apple. The game is just quite good.

So let’s remove all worries of bias by stating that I’ve also worked on a lot of Flash projects–just check my portfolio. I love what Flash has enabled for games in the web browser. As a developer, I’m not fond of some of the seemingly voodoo-ness and slowness of Flash. On the flip side, I am not enamored by Apple’s App Store development tools–I’m a PC.

This is the rare time that I get to integrate marketer, game developer, and libertarian into a single discussion. I honestly do not want to have to do this often as it would mean the government is increasingly inserting its unwanted tentacles into my beloved video game industry–stay out please.

I’ve been following the Apple/Adobe debate ever since Apple announced iPhone OS 4.0 and the change in developer agreement that disallowed Flash cross-compiling–allowing developers to build apps using Flash tools for sale on the App Store. Then there were rumblings of FTC involvement–apparently, they weren’t happy with just annoying Google in their AdMob purchase.

First off, I would the FTC to show me where the trust is that Apple creates by disallowing the use of Flash on their mobile devices. The FTC can’t show the trust because there is no trust. They have to rephrase the issue to “anti-competitiveness”. What does that mean? Is it when the government grants Con Edision or National Grid or Verizon the monopoly (trust) to offer electric, gas, or telephone service in certain territories? That seems quite anti-competitive to me, I can only pick one provider for each of those services based on where I live. Strange how the FTC doesn’t bother those guys.

Apple owns the App Store. Apple owns the iPhone OS. If Apple discontinues the iPhone and the App Store tomorrow, all of this is moot. Flash won’t die if this happens. Adobe will be just fine. So what’s the problem? Why is it that Apple should be obligated to allow anyone to use their property as they like? There is no such obligation. This debate is completely ridiculous.

It is Apple’s responsibility to regulate their App Store. Not the FTC. Apple disallows porn on their App Store because they don’t want it there. By the FTC’s ideals, porn SHOULD be allowed on the App Store because its unfair to the porn industry. The porn industry is missing out on the millions of iPhone users who could have access to their content. Ludacris.

But, that’s the argument for Apple allowing Flash on their platform. It doesn’t make sense. Apple created the App Store and is largely responsible for making it as successful as it is. Apple is not obligated to give Adobe any share of that pie. In a free society, private people or groups are allowed to freely choose to work together or not.

If the market decides that they want Flash content on their mobile device, Apple will lose market share to the plethora of other mobile phones out there. Developers will move to other platforms and Apple’s revenue will fall. They’ll have no choice but to support Flash when that time comes. But that’s up to the market to decide. The market is you and me. We make decisions every day that regulate all actors of the market. No one needs the FTC to pretend as if they have a crystal ball and can see into the future and know what is best for us.

So not only is any FTC involvement completely unnecessary but, it is not congruent with a free society to force private groups to work together.

So FTC, GTFO.

By Tommy Leung