Apple to face antitrust inquiry over iPhone coding restrictions?
![](https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/r1_xwbAQPq8WjAtFGPC1TA--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTQyMDtoPTI3OQ--/https://s.yimg.com/uu/api/res/1.2/5u8epj7kwGYyM4AfyZZmIg--~B/aD0xOTk7dz0zMDA7YXBwaWQ9eXRhY2h5b24-/https://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2010/04/iphone-4-sdk-sm.jpg)
Apple's decision to block third-party toolkits and middleware -- particularly Flash -- from being used to develop iPhone and iPad apps has certainly prompted a fair amount of debate around the web, and now it sounds like Steve and the gang might face some even harsher scrutiny: a single-sourced piece in the New York Post reports that the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice are currently tussling over which agency should be tasked with a potential antitrust inquiry into the matter. That would certainly make some noise in the industry, but it doesn't mean much for those of us here in reality quite yet: assuming the report is true, an inquiry would still just be the very first step -- whichever agency is ultimately put in charge would then have to launch a formal investigation and then finally file and win a lawsuit for any changes to occur. That's a timeframe measured in months, if not years.
All that said, we can see why the feds are interested: Apple's slowly moving into an ever-more dominant position in the mobile market, and forcing developers to make a hard choice about which platforms to target certainly puts the squeeze on competitors. We'll be following this one closely -- stay tuned.