Apple’s SDK brouhaha explained for non-developers

So what’s up with Apple this week? In short, they are now the dominant platform in a space, and they intend to maintain that dominant position for as long as possible by preventing the ability to write an application once and run it anywhere. Apple’s tactics for maintaining their dominance are: bullying and complexity. They’re the same tactics use by every computer platform dominator (e.g., IBM, AT&T, and Microsoft) before them. All of this has happened before, and it will happen again. Click here for Brent Noorda's take on Apple’s SDK brouhaha.

An update (5/4/2010):

The Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice are exploring whether to open an antitrust inquiry into Apple over its recent actions restricting developers writing apps for its iPhone operating system.

The basis for a potential antitrust probe stems from Apple’s recent changes to its iPhone software developer kit. The changes, which were quietly rolled out during the announcement of the company’s new iPhone 4.0 operating system, made it clear that Apple would no longer allow apps into the iTunes iPhone and iPad store that are built using third-party programs.

The sudden changes to Apple’s rules came just days before Adobe was set to showcase its newest software update to its Flash authoring tools. The feature, called Packager for iPhone, would make it easy for developers to produce iPhone applications using Adobe’s software.