Did FTC Probe Cause Apple to Change App Rules?

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9 pointstylerrooney3 comments

I found it interesting that the pundits on NPR are claiming that this change may be intended to blunt competition from Android by keeping developers on iOS, as well as suggesting that this change may have been in response to FTC concerns. I love how one can view both closing and opening the license as hurting the competition. Doublethink is alive and well.

As the author of the article, I'd argue that the evidence that the FTC is talking to developers about tools (not so much about blocking Flash) shows that Apple was feeling FTC pressure. Jobs argued hard, and not unpersusasively, that third-party tools weren't the best for the ecosystem, so I think it's likely this reversal isn't what they want, but what they think they need to do to avoid a PR embarrassment from an FTC action or formal settlement.

Apple decides to do C. But C is a lot of work. So they do A and say "make web apps" and they start working on B. Meanwhile everyone screams, we want B, even though apple never promised B. Apple delivers B and everyone demands C and the FCC starts nosing around to see if it can drum up some "donations" to favored senators and congressmen from apple. Finally, apple finishes C and everyone says "see,we told you to do C!"

Yet when apple originally thought up C, these same people had never even considered the possibility of A.

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