“Google and Apple are locked in a conspiracy to oust the real villain of the era, the Dumb Pipe,” Steve Gillmor writes for TechCruchIT.
“Apple is conspiring with Google to force the FCC to ‘force’ Apple to, regrettably, open the door to VoIP and the Universal Inbox,” Gillmor writes. “Why did Apple let Google in in the first place, with YouTube, Gmail, and Maps? Because the alliance served Apple incredibly well in bringing an intuitive composite interface to the exciting new world of a real Web-aware phone. But the deal served a much larger purpose, to prod AT&T and by extension the rest of the carriers to move to flat data pricing and support for alternatives to the blockades erected against Flash, tethering, SMS, and other revenue safe zones ‘respected’ by Apple’s political design structures.”
Gillmor writes, “In each case, Apple could sit back and wait for the market to get noisy about the restrictions, let Google carry the ball forward against the carriers, and then eventually cave in to the “realities” of the marketplace. If anyone noticed that it might appear to be in both Google’s and Apple’s best interest to squeeze the carriers into compliance, then all that would need to be done to avoid the appearance of a counter-cartel would be to resign a board seat or two, make a lot of noise for the benefit of an FCC who is desperate to have any role before VoIP demolishes their seat at the table, and tease the digerati avant-garde with cool services to the point where they can’t live without their 2010 fix.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Like we always say, data’s data and carriers charging separate and extra amounts for some data (SMS, for example) is absurd and a scam.
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