The whole saga around the rejection of the official Google Voice client for the iPhone continues to play a prominent role on many websites. We all remember that the FCC had asked the three companies involved, AT&T, Google, and Apple, to answer a number of questions, but Google had censored a part of its letter. The censored section has now been published by Google.
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Member since:2009-09-17
Member since:2005-07-06
You have to look at the nature of Google Voice. It basically takes over the phone - you get one Google number you can use anywhere you are, you use that instead of your appointed iPhone one on whatever network you happen to be on and you then only need data access from your iPhone. Your mobile network is bypassed and it also effectively takes software control of the phone away from Apple. If Google Voice takes off in a big way, and there is every reason to believe it would (I'd run out and use it tomorrow), as Apple see it they would be held hostage by Google. If GV took off and then wasn't there then people wouldn't be interested, and it makes changing phones and networks a hell of a lot easier. Strategically, Apple are just plain uncomfortable with that.
Why would Apple lie? They just want everything to go in a circle that will never complete and hope it all goes away because they don't have an answer to it themselves.
Member since:2006-01-06
Member since:
2005-06-28
In my own personal opinion, there's no contradiction. Apple flat-out lied in their reply to FCC. And I am not saying that because Google said their thing to FCC and Apple said their own thing to FCC (it's one word against the other anyway). The reason I say this is because of what happened to the OTHER google voice applications, applications written by third parties that had nothing to do with Google.
And what happened to them was that they were first approved, and then, a few weeks later (when Google submitted their own app), they were UNapproved. Which tells me, that Apple didn't care too much about the whole google voice thing at first, and then when Google itself submitted their own OFFICIAL app for google voice, then Apple did a 180 degree change to their policy because they realized that the official app has more weight.
Because of what happened to these two OTHER apps, it tells me that Apple DID reject Google's app, and that what they are saying right now that the app is STILL under "inspection" (after all these months) is pure hogwash. Bullshit. Bollocks.
Edited 2009-09-19 23:01 UTC