What Must be Said: Apple, Google, AT&T, and Me Being Right. - August 31st, 2009

I don’t like to brag. I hate braggarts, and I hate feeling like one. That doesn’t stop me from committing this post to indulging in some serious self-appreciation, as well as reiterating my previous points on this issue in a “how’s your face feel” fashion towards those who would disagree. If you’re not familiar with this sad saga, it’s actually pretty simple.

First, Apple made the decision to dump anything Google Voice from its Appstore. Then, the entire world cried havoc and shenanigans on AT&T, clamoring for them to relinquish some phantom hold on Apple and allow the apps to release. The problem with that is that AT&T had absolutely no reason to intervene – or even care – about Google Voice.

Apple, on the other hand, did.

Here’s the Link-Tome of History:

1. Apple kiboshes Google Voice apps from the Appstore.
2. Mike Arrington “quits the iPhone.”
3. I call rubbish on Arrington’s temper-tantrum.
4. I got slammed for calling out Arrington.
5. The Wall Street Journal hops onboard the ignorance train.
6. I read above WSJ article and lose my temper on my uncensored blog.
7. Apple, AT&T and Google respond to the FCC query that resulted from the drama.

(In case you didn’t click the link above, basically they all affirmed I was right from the start)

8. TechCrunch dryly covers the revelations in those responses, and Arrington says nothing.

So, where does that leave me?

It leaves me in the “i’m so right it hurts” chair. Where does it leave you?

In a nutshell, I said that AT&T really had no reason to care about Google Voice or any app related to it that may grace the Appstore with its presence. I said that Apple had plenty of reason to care about these apps, especially Google’s proprietary app, because they replace functionality on the iPhone.

• The dialer, visual voicemail, the address book, the SMS message app, all would be functionally replaced with a sleek Google version that allowed linking to a nice free service that would tie in with other services and apps that are already taking the place of Apple’s offerings in other fields. Example: I’ve got half a screen full of web apps now on my iPhone’s home screen, all Google.
• Apple’s onboard email app, while nice, is rendered completely useless next to Google’s Gmail web app.
• The calendar application suffers a similar fate when stacked up against Google Calendar.
• Notepad, as simple as it is, is useless now that I have Google Tasks (assuming I’ve got data coverage at the moment).

MobileMe basically sucks is severely overpriced, considering most people just use it for sync. I’ve got all my calendar, tasking, email and contact lists syncing with Google servers, for free. Mate all that with phone functionality in the form of a fingertip app, and you’ve got a GooglePhone by Apple. Do you really think that Apple would like that? After all the work they’ve put into perfecting their iPhone OS, after all the marketing they’ve put out there, showing in great detail just how sleek their software is?

I was sure about this three weeks ago, and I’m sure about it today.

The writing isn’t only on the wall, it’s on the whitepapers that got sent to the FCC. People need to wake up and realize that as easy as it is to hate AT&T (believe me, it’s so, so easy), it doesn’t change the fact that they had no motive to take part in this nonsense. The blame needs to lay where it already lies, and people who screamed their heads off at the wrong party should man up and admit they were jumping the gun, and just flat out wrong.