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Google Claims That Apple Did Reject Google Voice iPhone Application
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What bothers me here, is why should Apple care. If I buy an iPhone to use on AT&T or I want to save money and use Google Voice, Apple is still selling me the phone.
What are they afraid of?
What are they afraid of?
I continue not to give a crap about Google's hurt feelings. I like that apple keeps control over the device and the entire user experience, the speed, the responsiveness, the whole look and feel. I like it because I have a phone which works in a consistent way, which feels like it was designed, not bodged together at an all-night pizza party. Innovation and design are not the same thing.
If the iPhone falls behind other offerings because they over-restrict creativity, then I won't buy another one when my contract is up and I'll switch and if enough other people do so, apple will change or lose (they can change, the appstore grew rapidly when the the 'only webapps for iphone' idea proved to be a flop).
It's their phone, it's their platform, they designed it, if they want it to have a certain consistency and be used in a given way and have core functionality restricted to the way they saw it, well that's their right.
If the iPhone falls behind other offerings because they over-restrict creativity, then I won't buy another one when my contract is up and I'll switch and if enough other people do so, apple will change or lose (they can change, the appstore grew rapidly when the the 'only webapps for iphone' idea proved to be a flop).
It's their phone, it's their platform, they designed it, if they want it to have a certain consistency and be used in a given way and have core functionality restricted to the way they saw it, well that's their right.
You wouldn't want the government involved when Apple is being anticompetitive? Why wouldn't you want the consumer protected?
This is exactly what happened with Opera mini.
Safari in the iPhone 3GS is ****ing great. But if Opera manages to get their app into the App store I'll sure as hell will be buying an iPhone. (provided I can unlock it
)
Not at all. If it weren't for an open platform, we wouldn't have things like Adium or Cyberduck because only the big name players could afford it, much like how the current council market is (excluding 360 XNA stuff).
Fart apps and flashlights.
Plus everything in the Productivity, Business, Reference, and Medical sections. You kinda forgot that.
How many of you actually use the App Store and have any clue how to search it or use its filters?
Obviously, games and the like are going to drive App Store popularity.
I agree with you, but at the same time I'm looking at this as a CONSUMER and the apps that I want for this device.
Google & Apple said it themselves in the document: Duplication of Features.
Think about ALL of the apps on the app store. THink about how SO MANY of them DUPLICATE FEATURES on the iPhone.
Give me consistency Apple.
Give app developers confidence in building apps BEYOND games & fart apps.
The iPhone is the best mobile platform, period, but I'd like some longevity in the platform and something MORE sophisticated than yet another Wikipedia app.
w00master
+1
As for Apple needing to maintain the user experience, yeah, I agree, the great UI is the key to all Apple's products. But tell me exactly how allowing users to voluntarily install a Google Voice app is gonna cause the user experience to come crashing down?
Sorry but I call BS. Apple killed it because it threatened the business models of the big Telcos who Apple is symbiotically entwined with now.
The fact is that as much as I like Apple's products, the insanely controlled lockdown of anything that isn't "authorised" whether it benefits the user or not, is frankly just control-freakery. I AM the consumer, the user, the owner of the product, I'm tired of being prevented from doing what I want with it - THIS is what hurts my user experience.
I fully support the government's right to jump in and force companies to do things when it needs to be done.
And yet, I'm agreeing with that other guy up there. This is not the time for that.
This would be important if there were no other smart phones. But there are. Buy the one that does what you need. Until the iPhone has 75% of the market, this kind of thing isn't needed.
I do, but I then think about how much more app developers could do if THEY HAD MORE CONFIDENCE in the APPROVAL PROCESS.
Explain to me why it's ok to have a VOIP app but not the GV app?
In what way is the VOIP app not Duplicating features?
What about all of those weather apps?
What about all of those calc apps?
Quit apologizing for Apple.
w00master
I do not agree that the Gov't should be involved either, but my complaint is *directly* toward Apple as a CONSUMER.
w00master
This is the FCC, not the FTC. They're primarily interested in if AT&T forced Apple to reject the Google Voice application as part of their continuing VoIP vs. carrier monitoring.
If AT&T didn't have hand in the rejection (which they've said they didn't), the investigation would be over from their point of view. It would be a hell of a reach on their part if they tried to force Apple to approve the Google Voice application since it's a private marketplace and Apple's not a cell carrier.
That would be the FTC's job. And they're already investigating Google and Apple.
Apple has no problems with another app that does the same thing, so that claim seems more like smoke and mirrors.
This is the reason why I recently bought a PC. I mean, a Mac works great if you do what Apple wants you to do, but if you ever want to do more, they slap you in the face.
Switch to WinMo or Android or BB. They're just as good as the iPho . . . oh wait.
There's always a price to pay. Taken for all in all, in light of what you get with the iPhone + Apple ecosystem, it's a small price to pay.
And even after the GV "incident", there are no shortage of developers for the iPhone, and certainly no shortage of carriers falling all over each other to get it.
No need to inflate the issue beyond what it actually is.
You read an idiot writer then. The app didn't do that and you can already do that with Google sync on the iPhone anyways. Plus this is how exchange works, yet they still support exchange. If Apple didn't want contacts being uploaded to servers, I guess they should block exchange support to?
And thats the key - Apple made no qualms that App distribution was something that they were going to control and that not everything was going to be approved. That was over 2 years ago. If you (as a developer and user), do not want to be bound to that model, that is your choice. Its definitely not a perfect or an ideal system, but people are buying into it willingly.
There is no law that states that Apple has to approve all applications. Apple does not have a monopoly on phones and if people don't want to be bound to Apple's business model, than they should not be purchasing Apple products. People are. We have to remind ourselves that Apple has never been about choice. They sell products based on what they like. They have been doing this for years and nobody has stopped them
You mean like the tight, integrated, and controlled movement the "drones" did following the man on the screen?
Great... so if Apple decided that all 3rd party apps for Mac OS X had to go through an Apple "approval process" you'd be cool with that too?