By now you've no doubt heard about Apple's refusal to let Google distribute its Google Voice Application on the iTunes store. In addition, Apple's pulled 3rd party Google Voice apps that had already been accepted to the store at partner AT&T's request.
The ire is through the roof. Earlier today Duke Arrington of TechCrunch fame, a prominent fan of Apple's iPhone, loudly and openly pulled the plug on his support of the product. At first, it seemed like a run of the mill Technorati squabble. But now the FCC's involved.
Why? Why would the top governing power of the United States get involved with what Apple and AT&T allow or don't allow on their hardware and services? Because at least on the surface, it doesn't seem fair. Not to sound like an indignant fourth grader or anything, but Steven F and Arrington are right.
Apple's laid out a series of guidelines about exactly what is and what is not passable where its iTunes applications were concerned. Skype has made it through with a VoIP calling system that allows users to text and make phone calls without using Plan Text messages or Plan minutes.
As for AT&T, they allow Google Voice applications to run on RIM's Blackberry-- why not the iPhone?
I'll tell you why. Because with normal smartphone users, the demand for such applications is minimal. While the average Blackberry can do much of what the iPhone does, the users who own Blackberries don't, for the most part, want to install myriad applications to add functionality to their phone. They want some email, some text messaging, a GPS featured map and maybe some web browsing and a game to pass the time in the subway or airport. But iPhone users are different. They not only want any and every bit of functionality they can get, but they plan to use that functionality-- over and over and over again. And that's why the phenomenal potential of the iPhone has been limited time and time again by both AT&T and Apple.
The details of the FCC inquiry into this issue can be seen here, while a short list of the limitations AT&T and Apple have implemented on the iPhone can be seen listed on one of my recent Tumblr posts. It's highly likely we'll be talking about these issues and how they affect the geeks and those beyond that spectrum during the next Symbiotek Podcast.
What's most clear is that collusion on the part of the AA Syndicate is harming relevant innovation in the software and telecom industries. Apple needs to remember what happened the last time an Operating System manufacturer got in the way of progress via anti-competitive practices, and AT&T needs to remember what happened to it last time it got too big for its britches. One would think that companies with products the likes of Time Machine and that companies which have defended themselves before Congress about illegally recording data and conversations should have much, much more profound understandings of their own recent history.
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