Apple in the crosshairs of competition authorities.

The U.S. Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) suspect Apple stifle competition by forcing developers of applications for iPhone and iPad to use their tools.

The standoff between Apple and Adobe is a rotating record. In the U.S. antitrust authorities are taking a close look at Apple, and are investigating whether the refusal of Flash on the iPhone, and iPod touch iPad is a barrier to competition. According to the Anglo-Saxon, the Ministry of Justice and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) study the desirability of launching a formal investigation and discuss the distribution of the proceedings.
These are a few lines slipped into the contract for the next iPhone software, which alerted the authorities of the competition. Since one month, Apple requires application developers for its mobile devices using its own software development. This decision led to the banishment of a handful of tools unofficial iPhone development. Including the Adobe Creative Suite 5, which was designed to create Flash applications.
In an open letter published last week, Apple CEO, Steve Jobs has explained the reasons which led to the ban applications built with other development interfaces. Apple, he said, wants the software for iPhone take advantage of all the functions of the smartphone. Requirements hardly tenable with Flash, which focuses on compatibility with a wide variety of devices (phones, computers, shelves, televisions), rather than optimizing for one of them.

"Obviously anticompetitive"
Adobe, meanwhile, accuses Apple of foreclosure applications on the App Store for its own benefit. "What it does is clearly anticompetitive," responded David Balto, a former head of the FTC. But the issue divided the experts. Another former head of the FTC, more nuanced, thought it would show that Apple has a nt position on this sector. Or prove that its new rules affect the consumer.
No stranger to antitrust proceedings against its rivals, including Microsoft, Apple has in any case rarely found in this position of defendant. But in Mobile, where he became the number one American, the positions have changed. Last year, the FTC had already interested in its policy of banning applications on the App Store. The redemption of the advertising AdMob for mobile by Google is also the subject ofinvestigation "push". A potential lock that would serve both the interests of Apple, which launched its own offering, DST.