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When the FCC got involved in the rejection of the Google Voice application for the iPhone, opinions were mixed. While iPhone users almost universally wanted to know where to point the blame, they were also unsure if government intervention was the way to go. Regardless of where you fall on the issue the verdict is in, and it now appears Apple is the guilty party.
In a written response to the FCC, AT&T claims the telecommunications company had “no role in Apple’s consideration of Google Voice or related applications”. The filing also revealed another juicy tidbit of information we’ve all been wondering about for months now. AT&T has actually been involved in the app approval process on at least a handful of occasions, but from what we can tell, this was limited to bandwidth hogging applications such as Pandora, and MobiTV that Apple feared would impact the overall stability of the 3G wireless network.
Apple, knowing that it was caught red handed, was quick to point out in its FCC filing that they have “not rejected the Google Voice Application” and that they “continue to study it”. It appears that the primary reason for the rejection is limited to concerns over how Google Voice alters “the iPhone’s distinctive user experience”. Apple fanboys will no doubt take this reasoning as the directive of Steve Jobs and leave it be, but Google was quick to remind us that Android forces no such restrictions.
“Google doesn’t screen or reject Android Market apps on the basis of content or functionality”. Everyone who uses an iPhone knows they are locked into Steve’s world, but should iPhone users accept that?
(Image Credit: Engadget)
Comments are closed on this article
Zan
August 24, 2009 at 11:32pm
Buy the iPhone, jailbreak it, use google voice.
I don't live in Steve Jobs world. I live in Jay Freeman's world.
mesiah
August 24, 2009 at 5:52pm
Unfortunately there are 2 different worlds at work here and non of this will ever really matter. There is the informed tech savvy person that reads articles like this and most likely doesn't own an iphone to begin with because they were aware of the limitations when it debuted. And then there is the mindless hipster drones that are going to buy iphones no matter what because they are "cool." They will go on drinking the steve jobs cool aid and continue to stuff money in the pockets of a company that could really care less about its customers as long as they are making a buck. Apple doesn't care what its customers want, it thinks its customers should want what apple deems fit for them, this is a terrible business model. But as long as customers support it, it will continue to thrive and give us wonderful innovations like internet explorer 6 and the dodge caravan.
jwalch.hawk
August 25, 2009 at 12:08pm
You sure it's just those two groups? What about savvy people who know the limitations of an iPhone yet still own one because they considered the cost justifiable? I suppose those don't exist?
monkeyboyx
August 24, 2009 at 1:27pm
(iPhone user experience) - ohh I get it its magical and can't be changed in anyway....rofl
Can't believe I use to be a hardcore apple user....apple has gone insane compare to the old day.
Its like that one line from (Pirates of Silicon Valley) this is shit...what Steve says it god’s word...lol
Now I wish they would come clean about MMS….was it Steve saying this is shit again or ATT having an issue.
Khaled
August 24, 2009 at 2:35pm
MMS is working fine on non AT&T networks. I only used it once to test ... brings the total number of times I ever tried MMS to 6... 5 of them were just testing MMS on Nokia/Sonyericsson phones ...
emails are much better these days....
Khaled
August 24, 2009 at 7:09am
To be fair, Google did pull an app from the android store:
http://www.obsessable.com/news/2009/03/31/google-pulls-tethering-applications-from-the-android-market/
and there's the spotify (sp) app.
another thing to keep note of: google redacted a section in their response about their conversation with Apple over google voice ban: http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/08/21/googles-response-to-the-fcc/
and finally, an iPhone developer who had his iPhone GV app removed said "Apple tries to 'pull the wool over' FCC's eyes" http://www.macworld.co.uk/mac/news/index.cfm?NewsID=26980
Taz0
August 24, 2009 at 5:50am
I don't know about iPhone users, but I love making Skype and Google Talk voice calls using fring on my Symbian phone. Skype is about 5 MB per hour of voice chat, which hardly even registers on my plan's internet usage. Good deal imo.
Digital-Storm
August 23, 2009 at 11:43pm
They talk about the IPhone, but what about the Ipod Touch that doesn't have a VOIP feature.
Carbon
August 23, 2009 at 8:19pm
I will never buy any of their lock you in hardware!
Android all the way Baby!!Of course, if you buy into one of Steve's Products you should know you are under his thumb at all times and shouldn't complain since it's not a secret how Nazi they are.
steubing
August 23, 2009 at 4:13pm
W2ED, what features are you looking for that Android doesn't have?
w2ed
August 23, 2009 at 2:57pm
...and the insane amount of control over the App Store is one of them.
As a platform, it has got to be one of the coolest and most unique things to come along in years. I could sit and imagine what I woud want to create for years, just based on what it could currently do - and I'd be in heaven if it'd add the one thing I want for it (a physical keyboard of some sort - I hate that touchscreen garbage!)
While I like that you won't have to worry too much about ever getting a virus from a downloaded app (You're not safe from anything coming through e-mail, no matter what Apple has in place), I dislike a lot of how Apple has controlled what is and is not allowed. Yes, it's understandable not wanting to confuse people, and yes, it's understandable to not want to overload the network and the users on it with Apps that hog up bandwidt, but those decisions should be left to the users, NOT to a couple of money-making companies. I should be able to decide if I want to use the non-Apple application to listen to my music or pull and read my e-mail- not Apple.
It's just too bad that neither Google nor Microsoft - or anyone else, for that matter - makes a platform I like for cell phones. I'm waiting to upgrade my cell phone until someone makes a phone with the stuff I want for it - which, at the moment, is still going to be a few more years. (This is being fair, in a way: phones like the iPhone or that use the Android OS address a lot of issues I've had with phones in the past - just not all of them.)
And before anyone judges me, here's a funny thought; I use an old Mac (Quicksilver G4, motherboard type A) that is also in serious need of an upgrade, and would upgrade if not for similar reasoning of neither side having what I want. Wish either Apple or someone else would get it right.
snapple00
August 23, 2009 at 4:22pm
" I'm waiting to upgrade my cell phone until someone makes a phone with the stuff I want for it - which, at the moment, is still going to be a few more years."
Uh.. What exactly do you want in a phone? And how do you know it will still be years off? What are these 'issues' you've been having?
I hate Apple, but why complain about the iPhones lack of keyboard? You do realize the whole damn phone is designed around the fact that it will be purely touch right? (The answer is no, you don't realize that)
Why not just get a blackberry and build your own applications and put them directly on your phone if you don't want to be restricted to Apples shit?
Or, and heres another idea, why don't you keep complaining? About 40 hrs of honest complaining will probably make a few new phones appear out of thin air. And if you put in the work, say 500 hrs, you get a whole new mobile OS.
quickone
August 23, 2009 at 10:45am
I'd like to see the gov step in and break up all the phone locking the phone companies are doing. It is anti competive, or at least limit exclusive rights for a year or something. A person should not have to be with a company to use the phone they want. Then again, I'm still with Nextel, shitty service and Zack Morris like brick phones...
~~The difference between insanity and genius is merely succes~~
jcollins
August 24, 2009 at 10:08am
I think it's possible that the phone locking will go away. Of course, people are going to then freak out about the substantial increase in phone prices since the subsidies will go away.
snapple00
August 23, 2009 at 11:49am
Zack Morris like brick phones? You means phones from 'saved by the bell' era?
Didn't saved by the bell have a recent reunion?
God I love that show. I used to watch it all the time. Screech was an asshole though, and he is still to this day. I think I will name my kids after the characters on saved by the bell. Especially Slater. That is a tight name. All except for screech, I hope he burns in hell.
Gadwil
August 23, 2009 at 10:24am
They should accept Steve's world since they know that it is his world when they buy the phone. If they didn't want to be in his world they should purchase a different phone.
