It has been two months since the Google Voice application for the iPhone and iPod touch was nixed by Apple, and now a confidential letter from Google, made public by the Federal Communications Commission, is shedding more light on Apple’s rejections of Google apps.
The letter, addressed to FCC Senior Deputy Bureau Chief James Schlitching, was written and hand-delivered on Aug. 21. The letter includes all of Google’s responses to questions from the FCC on the rejection of Google Voice and other applications.
In the letter, Google says Apple rejected the Google Voice app because “Apple believed the application duplicated the core dialer functionality of the iPhone.” That contradicts Apple’s earlier letter to the FCC that said, “Contrary to published reports, Apple has not rejected the Google Voice application, and continues to study it.”
Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, broke the rejection news in a phone conversation with Google’s Senior Vice President of Engineering and Research Alan Eustace on June 2, according to Google’s letter.
The Google Voice app quickly gained popularity among Research In Motion BlackBerry users and Android mobile-phone users.
Rather than decide whether to reach someone at home, at work, or on a cell phone, callers can use the person’s Google Voice number. The service, which is currently available by invitation only, also allows a user to manage how he or she can be reached by different callers.
It’s for those reasons that potential users are speaking out against Apple’s rejection, saying approving the Google app would take money away from Apple and iPhone wireless carrier AT&T. Many said AT&T was behind Apple’s rejection of Google Voice, but AT&T denied having anything to do with the approval process.
This wasn’t the first time Schiller had rejected a Google app submitted for the iPhone.
After several phone, e-mail…