The internet is full of news and stories about the oppressive and seemingly random approval process that Apple employs for their App Store.
There is a growing unhappiness with the Apple by many owners of the iPhone. Granted there will always be hardcore enthusiasts on both ends of the spectrum but this is coming from the mainstream of phone users.
Yes the iPhone is a very good product and innovative; I am very willing to admit that. But to be perfectly honest, if I did not have the ability to jailbreak my phone I do not think I would own one. There are simply too many missing features.
The recent approval and disapproval of every Google Voice app and the Google Latitude app has an even larger number extremely upset.
But what is the reason behind this? Why, out of the blue is Apple killing this off? I have tried to put myself in Apple’s place. Killing these types of Apps off will hurt them, not terribly but it will hurt. There will be people that will now choose another SmartPhone over the iPhone now. After all the GV apps are available for both BlackBerry and Android, not to mention upcoming Chrome OS.
But then I remembered that Apple has an ongoing investigation from the US DoJ. The investigation is into if the shared directorates between Apple and Google are a violation of the Sherman Clayton Anti Trust Act or 1914.
So the large scale disapproval of Google apps, could be nothing more than a diversion. It would seem to fit the facts; Google was a preferred developer before the investigation. Google Earth, Google Mobile App [a voice recognition application]. All of these were approved with no problem. Now Apps that should have been a no-brainer are being given the boot. They can point to this and say, "See we are not playing favorites with Google, honest."
But the is a problem, just like Microsoft and Intel, the enormous market share of the mobile application market that Apple has could very well open them up to Anti Trust Litigation in the US and EU. Considering they are overtly blocking the competition with their refusal to allow competing applications. This was their excuse for killing GV Mobile; that the application reproduced existing functions on the iPhone.
I wonder what excuse Apple would give to the DoJ and the EU if this were ever brought to court.
