Seems there’s some hatred on Apple because they bounced Google Voice from the app store (cite). What surprises me is that this is pissing off people now: seems to be spreading throughout the internet, but let me highlight this particular article, and especially this quote:
I haven’t heard a single explanation for the rejection of the Google Voice app that makes a shred of sense at all.
What’s funny is that if you read the previous two paragraphs, the answer jumps right out at you:
Fact: Apple continues to sell iPhone apps that permit you to send free SMS messages. No problems there either.
Fact: You can still do everything that the Google Voice app would have done by accessing the web interface through Safari, albeit slightly less conveniently.
Exactly!
Imagine Google Voice was allowed on. Imagine that its “in the cloud” nature or its ease-of-use makes it a common go-to application for SMS, and people share their Google Voice number for incoming phone calls and use the Google Voice app to place their outgoing calls. In short: most of the iPhone’s core functionality is replaced by Google Voice.
Now imagine Apple pisses you off, and you decide to switch. No problem: switch to a Pre. Same carrier, same Google Voice functionality: didn’t even have to move over your contacts. That’s no biggie to you, but a big biggie to Apple: they just lost a gizmo junkie.
In my interview with “This Ain’t Your Dad’s Java”, it came up that Apple’s approach to developers is rather domineering: they are letting you play on their playground, and while you may make some cash or have some sense of ownership, the real person in control is always Apple. And this is the way it is on OS-X, too, which (despite its BSD roots) is still de facto dependent upon Apple’s good graces for up-to-date Java releases and other software support.
While this attitude may seem initially at odds with Apple’s extensive effort at developer evangelism, the fact of the matter is that tight control over the software is what drives a lot of Apple’s hardware sales. OS-X is effectively an Apple-hardware-only piece of software1, and that software has attracted a whole lot of people who were otherwise turned off by the spendiness of Apple hardware (your humble author included). Now that I’ve got a MacBook Pro with OS-X, it comes shipped with iTunes, which I use because nothing else integrates as well with the other applications I’m running. iTunes doesn’t integrate well with my cell phone or MP3 player (both of which I end up treating like a dumb USB drive), which makes me tempted to get an iPod.
OS-X (software) sold MacBook Pro (hardware) which shipped with iTunes (software) which is tempting me towards an iPod (hardware): Apple may be more of a gizmo company than a software company, but it’s a mistake to think of them as a hardware company. They want any piece of their puzzle to get you hooked and jonesing for the rest of it. And letting someone act as a bridge to a non-Apple universe is simply not helpful to that plan.
1 You can try your luck at the OSX86 Project, but it’s commensurate with rolling your own Linux distro.
[EDIT: There is a bunch of people all excited over the FCC's inquiry about Apple canceling Google Voice. Relax: it's for a more general investigation into vendor lock-in in the handset market (cite), and there's no sign they are going to force Apple to allow an app into their app store. ]
[EDIT 2: More good stuff on the FCC's inquiry over at a Washington Post reprint of TechCrunch info, although the title is a bit misleading ("Why The FCC Wants To Smash Open The iPhone" — Really? It does? Got any evidence whatsoever?).]
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