“The Federal Communications Commission has launched an inquiry into why Apple Inc. rejected Google Inc.’s Internet-telephony software for the popular iPhone, another sign of the Obama administration’s stepped-up scrutiny of competitive practices in the technology industry,” Fawn Johnson and Amy Schatz report for The Wall Street Journal.
“In letters sent late Friday to the two companies and AT&T Inc., the FCC asked why Apple rejected the Google Voice application for the iPhone and removed related applications from its App Store. The letter also seeks information on how AT&T, the exclusive U.S. iPhone carrier, was consulted in the decision, if at all,” Johnson and Schatz report. “The FCC’s letter to Google asks for a description of the Google Voice application and whether Apple has approved any other Google applications for its store.”
Johnson and Schatz report, “Google Voice assigns a single phone number to a user’s cellphone, land line or Internet phone accounts. It also allows free text messaging and inexpensive international calls.”
“On Tuesday, Google said Apple wouldn’t let it distribute the software through its App Store, where iPhone users can download software. Apple has previously turned away Internet-telephony programs because they repeated key iPhone functions,” Johnson and Schatz report.
Johnson and Schatz report, “In a statement Friday, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said the FCC ‘has a mission to foster a competitive wireless marketplace, protect and empower consumers, and promote innovation and investment.’ The inquiry isn’t a formal investigation, but it is notable because the FCC hadn’t received a complaint about Apple’s rejection of Google Voice.”
Full article here.
The FCC’s letters (.pdf) to each company:
• Apple
• AT&T
• Google
Apple must hate this situation, but their hands are tied in the matter. They have to abide by the contract. The problem is AT&T;. So it is up to us, the consumers, to get something done about it.
The FCC should only be a beginning. The Federal Trade Commission and the U. S. Department of Justice and the State Attorneys General should get involved, and bust up AT&T;’s abusive monopoly.
The ideal solution would be to bust AT&T;into state-sized units. Then they will start investing more in local wireline and wireless infrastructure, instead of wasting billions of dollars laying underwater cables to China.
Let’s look at this from a business perspective. Google earns 98% income from ad revenue, mainly I think, from search. Their other ventures don’t make money. Why would Apple or AT&T;, let a third party, who doesn’t even care to make profit, come in between their profit stream. The consumers are very stupid to think that if Google Voice is in a position to earn money, it won’t. I guess consumers feel GV will be another free, fantastic Google app, and a BUSINESS with Googles resources can crash any party it pleases. The writings on the wall as far as Apple and AT&T;are concerned, Google is setting up a ‘free’ tollbooth, which eventually leads to a tollbooth, at the other two’s expense. Google is very welcome to put GV on Android at Verizon or Sprint, but don’t let them interfere with a proven model. Yes, I call too many consumers stupid because businesses exists for profit, without it, many products wouldn’t exist, so to assume a BUSINESS should let someone interfere with their profit (even Google with cheap or free apps) is a conflict of interest. Google ultimately generates money for profit – it’s not a non-profit charity creating apps for humanitarian goals. Remember Google also wants to scan all books, without paying, to generate page hits to sell advertising, that’s sleazy if you ask me.
http://www.macworld.com/article/142022/2009/07/appstore_innovation.html
@random guy
“if the Feds would stick to their original Constitutionally-mandated responsibilities like paving roads”
LOL! You think paving roads is Constitutionally mandated? LOL!! Time to go redo remedial history class!
@Roy
“those roads, parks, sewers, and schools are not OWNED by the government. They are OWNED by the citizens of the USA who pay for them”
Nope. As citizens, we pay for the right to USE those services, but they’re owned and operated by state and federal governments. I can’t go into my public school and paint a wall red the same way I can in the house that I own. The government decides when parks should open and close, when roads need to be re-paved, when sewers need maintenence. If we don’t like their decisions, we can vote them out and being in new government. But we don’t have direct ownership over what government provides us.
What you all seemed to miss is that the FCC is just making shit up. obviously going after apple will bring them headlines, they don’t really care–sorta like poor michael Vic, has anybody read or heard about anymore dog fighting arrests lately? The FCC is just trolling for headlines so they can be on meet the press on Sunday. Unfortunately, this will just lead to more companies moving off shore, like haliberton–whether you like them or not we just lost over a 1000 jobs because they got tired of listening to that whiiny bitch maxine waters berate them every other day–don’t be so surprised when you all wake up one day and we all to move to another country just keep our jobs
“Government is always bad! No regulation of anything ever!”
You people won’t be happy until you’re sipping lead & mercury colas in deathtrap trailers with untreated human filth swirling around your ankles. And you’ll still be cursing the very idea of the governement doing jack to defend you against any form of abuse.
I’d be fine with that if you weren’t dragging me along with you.
Seriously, guys- this is an investigation to see if some one did something wrong. Relax.
@natthan–F&^%ck A dude, did you or did you not read the article and did you or did you not just read what I wrote–the swirling human filth around the ankles though–that was good
Great! Pretty soon we will be required to use government issued toilet paper when we take an Obama.
Nothing worse than Left Wing Morons who are too chicken to take responsibility for their own lives but want the government to care for them from cradle to grave.
I agree that this is BS, even though I love Google Apps and would like more competition in the wireless world. Exclusivity is necessary in the markeyplace as it creates brand differentiation – if for example, any software developer was FORCED to support every platform within a given market sector we’d have no reason to have both a PS3 and Xbox 360. Applications would have to be built for the least-common-denominator leading to a profound stagnation in software development. And most importantly, most small and medium development houses do not HAVE the resources for such a law, and would evaporate – killing the last source of real ingenuity in the industry.
The homogenization of the software industry must be stopped. I’m sick of the generic crap from EA and love playing Indy games exclusively on Xbox Live Arcade. I love the iPhone and it’s unique UI that’s forcing game developers to think of new ways of interacting with games and applications. When apps are written to take full advantage of the uniqueness of a platform, then we all win.
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