European Officials Concerned About Closed Smartphone Platforms

Apple is no stranger to class action lawsuits, patent infringement claims, or Federal Trade Commission investigations. One of the recent attention grabbers was for an arguably closed platform choice against allowing Adobe development platforms and Flash to mingle with Apple App Store apps. The latest news shows Europe's legislation is changing and legislators are noticing. European officials will begin looking into a number of smartphone company's platforms for possible antitrust violations. The App Store's strict requirements and approval process has seen plenty of criticism by both developers and customers. Developers angry about unknown and varied rejections or removals of their apps. Customers complaining why a certain app, like Google Voice, isn't available on the App Store but see no reason why not. There are those who defend Apple with a typical statement of "go buy a Droid then" and similar comments depicting an open market. EU Commissioner Neelie Kroes doesn't seem to find that to be a realistic alternative or argument. Kroes says companies

cannot just choose to deny interoperability with their product.

and

consumers need choice when it comes to software or hardware products

Is this really such a thing to be complaining about? Developers wouldn't be creating and porting apps to a platform that doesn't benefit them, would they? Customers wouldn't be buying iPhones in unimaginable sized droves if the platform wasn't an overall success, would they? The economic model of supply and demand would suggest not. While not a perfect setup, The iTunes Store and App Store have been refined and do offer generally positive aspects for privacy, safety, and quality. Developers still prefer to move to and remain a part of Apple's iOS platform, as shown here, here, and an inside opinion here. As recent as May, the iPhone market share is still strong and continues to attract users and large company involvement. What about a platform that attracts enough attention to get quick backing and response from a company like abc? Who'd have thought a small game developer for a smartphone being in the crosshairs of a well established, multi-billion dollar company like Disney? I doubt anyone but Apple has made it happen. There's always room for improvement and everything has advantages and disadvantages but my take is, this is bunk. Keeping an eye on strongholds in a market is necessary. but it looks to me that the public has made its choice, at least for now. [via Gizmodo]

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