The Story
According to Google, some parties were able to get the full version of its filings with the FCC over the Google Voice application’s rejection from the App Store. They did so via the Freedom of Information Act, a handy (and often overlooked) law. Today, Google released the full letter, which you can find here. Essentially, the point of the letter is that Apple Senior VP of Worldwide Product Marketing, Phil Schiller, personally signed off on this.
The Plot Thickens
After Ars Technica ran their story on Google’s posting the letter, they got something very rare: a comment from Apple. Apple states that “”Apple has not rejected the Google Voice application and we continue to discuss it with Google.” This is despite Google’s statement in the letter that Apple rejected the application in full because, so far as Google could tell, because Apple did not like that Google Voice replicated the dialing functionality of the normal phone parts of the iPhone.
And It All Still Doesn’t Matter
As much as proponents of openness and freedom of development would love to see it, neither this investigation nor this information will change the way Apple runs the iPhone and the App Store. Rather, the FCC’s investigation should be seen as a flashlight. Everyone know that Apple wants to take a walled garden approach with the iPhone, and this is only providing evidence which furthers that belief.
The FCC cannot force Apple to open up the iPhone. That’s just now how government agencies work. Unless Apple one day controls 70% or so of the smartphone market, the way to deal with ridiculous App Store policies is to use the free market as a tool. Don’t like it? Get a smartphone running an operating system that isn’t so looked down. There’s Android, Symbian, Maemo, WebOS, and even Windows Mobile. The choices are available. Eventually, if Apple loses market share because its keeping things too closed, it’ll open up. Well, unless it wants the iPhone to fail, but I don’t see Steve Jobs standing behind any move which would cause that to happen.
