The U.S. antitrust watchdog may launch an investigation into technology giant Apple?s policy towards the iPhone, says a media report.
The U.S. department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission officials are looking into whether the company is unfairly forcing developers to use Apple?s own tools to develop applications for the iPhone, iPad and iPod, the Financial Times reported.
?U.S. authorities have signalled an interest in a potential antitrust probe into whether the software underpinning Apple?s ground-breaking iPhone unfairly locks out competitors, ? the report said attributing the information to a person familiar with the matter.
The interest of the regulators comes in the wake of a recent dispute that broke out between Apple and software-maker Adobe over the latest version of the iPhone software, which was unveiled last month.
Apple chief executive Steve Jobs had last week took the unusual step of writing a public letter explaining his decision to bar Adobe?s software from his company?s devices.
According to the daily, the U.S. Justice department and the trade commission are still making the decision as to whether to launch a probe and a decision is expected within a week. The report said Mr. Jobs sought to explain on the Apple website last week why the company?s devices did not support Adobe?s Flash, a widely used video-streaming technology.
?Adobe claims that we are a closed system, and that Flash is open, but in fact the opposite is true,? the daily said citing Mr. Jobs.
