The French government is looking into Apple's carrier contracts in France over the requirements it places on companies that sell the iPhone, reports The Wall Street Journal.
This is not the first time that regulators in Europe have looked into the strict terms that Apple requires of its carrier partners -- Apple insists carriers guarantee sales of large numbers of iPhones and other factors that some say amount to anti-competitive behavior.
The inquiry is part of a larger investigation into the overall relationship between handset makers and some of their biggest clients, said the person familiar with the matter. "For operators, handsets have become one of the big expenses," the person said. "There is a balance of power that is shifting."
Back in March, European regulators looked into the potential antitrust issues of Apple's contracts with carriers, but this new investigation is specifically from the French government, rather than the EU itself.
France is also looking into Apple's treatment of its third-party resellers as well as the behavior of Apple, Google and Amazon that prevent customers from moving purchased apps from one platform to another.
Top Rated Comments
Never gonna happen. Though it is sometimes nice to think about.
By the way, investigating behavior over "not allowing customers to transfer purchased apps between platforms?" Really? Yes, software coded in Objective-C using Cocoa Touch APIs is transferable between entirely different software platforms. :rolleyes:. Or wait, they mean developers should GIVE their software away to users who bought their software on other platforms, and just completely ignore the work they did to bring that software from one platform to another.
Lets just force all platforms to run on the same kernel with the same APIs and development environment using the same language. Yes, that would kill ALL innovation at the software level. Lets just turn software into a commodity rather than an art form. Software prices are already at give-away prices, lets just take it even further. Rather than appreciating the quality of software that can be had these days for insanely low prices, in your pocket everywhere you go.
I wish governments would become more technically enlightened before trying to poke their noses in an area they have literally zero knowledge about.
maybe the people under investigation should be the carriers. That seems to be where the most collusion, corruption, anti-trust and price fixing appears to take place. Especially in places like Canada and the US.
as goverment regulators always can find troublesome items in corporative contracts. The thing right now, Apple is becoming the Ivory Tower for claims, class action suites, demands and the like. Big pockets dont play in favour of Apple, less in Europe where too many people have Anti-american attitudes and rethorics.....Would be wise if Apple adjust their requeriments/contracts based more firmly in local marketing conditions. I had seen Apple gone to great lenghts to take a foothold in the Chinese market. Can this signal a deliberate or an accidental omision from Apple?.....Corporative complot theoricists welcome....:confused:.......:eek:
:):apple:
I'm not aware of any XBOX mods that allow you to run PS discs. Having said that...some app developers and game developers are allowing you to download / run the same app for different platforms. For example, Adobe allows you to install any of their CC apps on Mac or Windows. You need to pay the CC subscription fee of course, but doing so allows you to download and run something like Photoshop on your platform of choice. I thought the latest SimCity was the same... but I may be mistaken here (and I'm too lazy right now to look it up). Either way, some app developers are entitling a user to run an app on his platform of choice these days.
I'm not convinced this is a good analogy. Perhaps a better one would be this: You buy a Blu-Ray disc of Spiderman (which is a Sony-developed movie). Should you be able to play that BR disc in a non-Sony player?
If you're allowed to play (transfer) a BR disc (ie, an app) in any BR player (ie, the platform), why wouldn't you be able to transfer a mobile app from one platform to another?
I'm not saying I agree / disagree with the investigation, but perhaps there are analogies to be drawn. Whether or not these analogies are good is another matter, but I could see why the FR government is asking the question.