TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington has been one of the most prominent industry voices against Apple’s rejection of the Google Voice app. He was so miffed, in fact, that he gave up his iPhone for a myTouch 3G to be a part of initial GV Mobile testing. The FCC has since started to investigate the situation with regard to market competition and sent Apple backtracking. It’s become pretty clear over the past couple days that Apple acted alone in denying the app, and that no one, not even the FCC, is happy with their (Apple’s) decision.
Back to Arrington. He’s put together the best comprehensive analysis of the proceedings I’ve seen in the past few days. I’ve always kept an ear to the wall where Mr. Arrington decides to voice an opinion, and he has what might be some promising news for iPhone owners.
Here’s what you need to know. Several sources within Google confirmed to TechCrunch that it was indeed Apple who rejected the app – not AT&T and certainly not Google. Apple now denies ever rejecting the app, suggesting instead that it’s still under review because it could possibly take over for the iPhone’s native features, a claim that appears to be patently false.
The outcome? Arrington believes, for what seems to me good reason, that we’ll see the app pushed through in short order. Apple has been scrambling lately to revamp their approval process, making concessions for apps that have been previously denied. They’re also citing reasons for denial that are simply untrue or easily disproved. According to Arrington, that all points to approval. In his words:
Here’s what we believe Apple is preparing to do next. Their statement that they haven’t rejected the app, along with the long laundry list of complaints (none of which are true) tells us that they’re backtracking, and fast. Sometime soon, we guess, Apple will simply accept the Google Voice application. They have to – any serious investigation into the app by the FCC will show that the complaints around the app are unfounded and that it does none of the things Apple accuses it of doing. So Apple will save face by simply asking Google to ensure that the App doesn’t take over native phone, sms and other functions, and doesn’t sync the contacts to Google’s servers. Google will comply (they already have), and Apple will graciously accept the application.
That would certainly be a win for consumers, though it might be too late to win someone like Arrington back. He’s already fallen in love with Google Voice on Android. With such a ridiculous approval process and the fact that it took federal involvement to get the thing going, I can understand the angst. Unfortunately, I didn’t found TechCrunch, so no one asks me to help roll out the early iterations of what could be the best thing to happen to phones since the cell tower.
It seems Apple has one less straw man to throw at investigators over the Google Voice rejection. AT&T has decided, at long last, to allow VoIP calling over 3G connections. VoIP over 3G has been the reason behind a whole slew of app rejections for the iPhone. The change probably comes as a result of the net neutrality discussion, but even so, it’s something I expected AT&T to fight aggressively, not acquiesce to.
