With good reason, a lot of people think TechCrunch founder Mike Arrington is a douchebag, but he finally raises an interesting point in an otherwise scathing and elitist post about how Apple’s answer to the FCC’s inquiry over the removal of Google Voice is a bunch of BS.
Multiple sources at Google tell us that in informal discussions with Apple over the last few months Apple expressed dismay at the number of core iPhone apps that are powered by Google. Search, maps, YouTube, and other key popular apps are powered by Google. Other than the browser, Apple has little else to call its own other than the core phone, contacts and calendar features. The Google Voice App takes things one step further, by giving users an incentive to abandon their iPhone phone number and use their Google Voice phone number instead (transcription of voicemails is reason enough alone). Apple was afraid, say our sources, that Google was gaining too much power on the iPhone, and that’s why they rejected the application.
Interesting and entirely plausible.
Apple makes software to sell hardware. From Apple’s perspective, if Google based software apps become the default standard for mobile phones, then the differences between the iPhone and Android-based competitors start to evaporate.
August 23rd, 2009 at 11:34 am
First, the more I read Arrington, the more I think he is a douchebag.
Second, what are the other Apps that are ‘powered by Google’ that allow this argument (however, ridiculous) to be made? Listing Maps & YouTube along with Search (which really shouldn’t count) and then nothing else is pretty lame.
Lastly, the main point (Google software make platform choice irrelevant (or less relevant) is pure rubbish. This is similar to the argument that it doesn’t matter what computer you use (linux, windows, mac) because everything is done online – complete rubbish.