Google, Apple on FTC’s antitrust radar

It may be Monday morning, but the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is up bright and early with both Google and Apple in its sights for various antitrust related issues.
The commission is looking into suing Google over the search engine giant’s AdMob acquisition, in an attempt to somewhat impede Google from attaining even more control over the search business than it already does.
The Internet is rife with rumors that an antitrust lawsuit or preliminary injunction will be leveled at Google by the FTC either by the end of this week or early next week, with Google already ramping up the defense rhetoric and appealing to mobile companies for help lobbying the FTC.
AdMob, currently the largest mobile advertiser on the block, allows its clients to bombard iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, Symbian and other smartphones with adverts non-discriminately, with both Google and AdMob saying the platform would continue to service all kinds of devices, rather than restrict itself just to Google’s Android OS.
Regardless, if the FTC does move to nix the deal, Google would find itself facing a major hurdle in its mobile ad campaign business, giving rival Apple the upper hand in the space as the big kahuna of mobile advertising.
Apple recently snapped up Quattro Wireless and launched iAd, seen by many as a reactionary move to Google’s AdMob purchase.
Apple, however, isn’t without its own FTC problems this morning, with both the Department of Justice and FTC circling the gadget maker as talks of an antitrust inquiry over Apple’s much-debated ban on cross-platform development tools gain momentum.
Specifically, Apple’s update to section 3.3.1 of the iPhone OS developer agreement has come under fire, though Apple argues it has no reason to make it easy for developers to use its platform to write apps that can be used on other smartphone operating systems.
It seems Steve Jobs’ logic failed to impress the powers that be, with the New York Post quoting sources “familiar with the matter,” saying both organizations are just “days away” from deciding which department should handle the case.
It appears, therefore, that it’s less a matter of if Apple will be investigated for anti-trust, and simply a matter of who will conduct the probe and when, although an investigation in and of itself means very little in terms of subsequent action.
Stay tuned and we’ll keep you updated with the latest developments.