More Evidence That Apple Really Did Reject Google Voice

At this point there shouldn’t be any doubt in anyone’s mind that Apple’s response to the FCC over its ban of Google Voice was rife with half-truths and some complete falsehoods. One claim that’s entered the limelight again is Apple’s statement that it hadn’t actually rejected Google Voice, but that it was still “pondering” it. Yesterday Google released its full, unedited response to the FCC inquiry, and the newly revealed content directly contradicts Apple’s statement multiple times, explicitly stating that the application was rejected.

Apple struck back with a statement that it didn’t agree with Google and that “Apple has not rejected the Google Voice application and we continue to discuss it with Google”. We’ve heard that Google actually has a screenshot displaying its rejection notice, but we may not even need that to show (once again) that Apple isn’t being honest.

In its letter to the FCC Apple says that “contrary to published reports, Apple has not rejected the Google Voice application, and continues to study it”. It then goes on to describe its issues with Google Voice, which include fears of confusing users and replacing the iPhone’s core functionality (for a moment let’s ignore the fact that Apple’s description is totally disingenuous). Apple closes out this description with “The following applications also fall into this category”, and then lists the three third party Google Voice apps that were yanked from the App Store.

Presumably the applications in “this category” are all being pondered over too, and have not been rejected, right? But that’s simply not the case. Riverturn Inc, the developer behind the VoiceCentral application that was listed in Apple’s FCC response, has sent us a screenshot of its ‘rejection’ status that is quite clear.

Of course, this is all semantic hairsplitting — a neverending “pondering” status is exactly the same thing as a rejection — and Apple isn’t fooling anyone with it.