"We want to make sure that the investments developers make are protected for the long term," Treadwell said.

A big no-no for platform providers is using their power to quash applications that compete with their own, the panelists agreed.

"If someone built a competitive application with our photo or mail products, we would welcome that. We want to see that because it's going to provide a better experience for our users," MySpace's Kapur said. "That keeps us relevant, keeps our users engaged with the core product, our social network."

Adopting an adversarial stance would damage beyond repair the trust of the affected developer, as well as that of the entire developer community, Kapur said.

Vic Gundotra, an engineering vice president at Google, seconded that view and extended it, arguing that control of the platform by a single provider by definition slows down innovation, a swipe at his former employer, Microsoft.