Apple may be facing Inquiries regarding Antitrust

Apple may be facing some inquiries regarding possible violations of the antitrust law from its recent implementation of changes made to its licensing agreement with iPhone OS application developers.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Justice Department, who jointly enforce federal antitrust law, is deciding which among them will handle the inquiry.

The move came after the much publicized war between Apple and Adobe after the revised license agreement made sure developers do not use software tools other than Apple’s tools to develop applications. These affected Adobe’s efforts to develop Flash-based applications to the iPhone OS.

Apple has already sold 85 million iPhone and iPod Touch units and one million iPad units. This apparent popularity led some to believe that Apple may already be dominating the market. If such is the case, the move with changing the license development may curb competition.

Apple, Adobe, the Justice Department and the FTC all declined to comment on the matter.

Posted: 04 May 2010 01:30 AM PDT
Post from: Daily Contributor