So you’re a company who makes web software that, love it or hate it, most people use, but the company that controls an ever-growing share of the smartphone market refuses to allow your software to be installed on its devices.  What do you do? 

You rub their faces in it.

Adobe has, according to Gear Diary, begun displaying the message shown left when iPhone users attempt to use certain sites or web pages that requires Flash.  The message reads:

Apple restricts use of technologies required by products like Flash Player.  Until Apple eliminates these restrictions, Adobe cannot provide Flash Player for the iPhone or iPod touch.

Translation: Apple’s playing games with your phone and won’t let you use our technology even if you want to.  We’ve been trying, but hey, Apple’s calling the shots here.  Sorry for the arbitrary inconvenience.

There are valid arguments for and against Adobe’s Flash being part of the iPhone, but I think it’s a decision iPhone users should be able to make.  Don’t you?

-M. Nichols

A few days ago, we told you about Apple’s refusal to include the official Google Voice app in the iTunes App Store.  We were none too pleased by the decision, or the subsequent purging of related third-party apps. It would seem Apple’s move wasn’t as under-the-radar as the company may have hoped; yesterday the FCC sent letters to Apple (full text below) and AT&T requesting further details on the situation, and a third letter to Google seeking insight into the company’s experience during this and previous software submissions to Apple.

Specifically, the Federal Communications Commission wants to know why Apple rejected Google Voice and related, previously-approved apps, whether or not AT&T played a role in the rejections, any contractual or non-contractual agreements between Apple and AT&T that contributed to the decision, and clarification of Apple’s general standards for approving or rejecting applications.

In our free market economy (at least on paper), the Feds should stay out of the way as much as possible.  But the government does have constitutional authority to regulate interstate commerce and, by extension, a role in protecting competition, which has proven its benefit to quality, price and service for centuries.  One of the FCC’s goals is to foster competition in the communications market. 

What manner of control the FCC should (or does) have in this matter under current law is up for debate, and it’s unclear whether or not FCC action will have any direct impact.  But indirectly it may compel Apple to think twice before making a move like this in the future. 

If a platform provider (Microsoft, Apple, Google, etc.) can begin securing its operating system from competitors’ products, all consumers lose.  

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Apple has placed a huge order for NAND flash memory chips, presumably for their upcoming iPhone release (or releases) this summer.  The authors of the DigiTimes story state that Apple has ordered over 100 million 8Gb (gigabit) chips, largely from Samsung, a quantity that represents a rough doubling of the number of chips ordered by the company this time last year.

We’ve known that at least one new iPhone model was coming this summer for months, and one of the most obvious areas for enhancement for such a device would be storage capacity.  Could the new iPhone come in 16GB and 32GB capacities like the 2G iPod touch?  Could a 64GB model be on the way?  We’ll have to wait and see.

One thing is certain: this massive order will limit the flash memory supply for some time, perhaps as late as June.

While explaining why it is Apple will no longer officially participate in future MacWorld Expos, marketing executive and ‘09 keynote speaker Phil Schiller enumerated a loose calendar of product refresh cycles the company would like to stick to going forward.

According to Schiller, Apple’s product release cycles are as follows: “the iPod product cycle (October), the iLife development cycle (usually March), the iPhone cycle (June).”  January – the month in which the Expo has been held – does not fit into this schedule.

The last two iPhones – the original and 3G models – were each released in June, and iPods are usually released around September or October, so these dates aren’t exactly a revelation.  But it is worth noting that in laying out Apple’s refresh cycle in this way, Schiller all but confirmed that iPhone 3.0, or a new iPhone model altogether, will arrive this summer.  iPhone nano, anyone?

We’re looking forward to it.