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Google, Apple Joust Over Rejected Voice App
ZipK writes with an update to last month's FCC inquiry that landed Apple and AT&T in hot water over the apparent rejection of a Google Voice app for the iPhone. All three companies submitted statements to the FCC — Apple claimed the app hadn't been rejected at all, that they were simply "studying" it further. The public version of Google's statement contained a redacted section, which they politely referred to as "sensitive," but after seeing Apple's comments, they decided to reveal the entire document. Google's FCC filing directly contradicts what Apple said: "Apple's representatives informed Google that the Google Voice application was rejected because Apple believed the application duplicated the core dialer functionality of the iPhone. The Apple representatives indicated that the company did not want applications that could potentially replace such functionality." (PDF, page 4.) Apple quickly released a statement reiterating that they did not reject the app.
The majority of people don't give a damn about being able to reprogram a device. People want things to be simple. Sure, you are an expert with computers and want to configure everything. It's just like how an engineer doesn't like to buy a whole car but instead buys the engine and the brakes and puts it all together (ok that was a terrible example). You wouldn't be able to put a car together - it would be of no use to you. A lack of choice in certain areas (eg in the app store) is often good - choice can be intimidating.