Brussels, 27/09/2010 (Agence Europe) - On Saturday 25 September, Commission Vice-President in charge of Competition Policy Joaquín Almunia welcomed the announcement by US company Apple (informatics, telephony) that it had relaxed restrictions on the development tools for iPhone applications, or “apps”, and extended its repair warranty to member states other than the country of purchase. In the spring of this year, the Commission launched two parallel preliminary investigations into Apple's business practices relating to the iPhone. One focused on Apple's decision of April 2010 to restrict the terms and conditions of its licence agreement with independent developers of apps for its iPhone operating system. It focused on the rationale underlying Apple's requirement to use only Apple's native programming tools and approved languages when writing iPhone apps. Apple has announced that it is abandoning these restrictions, thus giving independent developers great flexibility and the option of developing apps for devices running platforms other than Apple's. The other investigation related to the “country of purchase” rule, whereby repairs service is only available in the country where the iPhone was bought. The Commission took the view that this could dissuade consumers from buying an iPhone in another EU/European Economic Area country than their home country. Here, too, Apple has decided no longer to enforce this rule and has appointed independent Authorised Service Providers to offer cross-border iPhone warranty services in those member states where Apple does not directly take charge of repairs. (F.G./transl.rt)