#FF00AA

For example, on an iPhone, the “Phone” icon that is always shown at the bottom of the Home Screen launches Apple’s mobile telephone application, providing access to Favorites, Recents, Contacts, a Keypad, and Visual Voicemail. The Google Voice application replaces Apple’s Visual Voicemail by routing calls through a separate Google Voice telephone number that stores any voicemail, preventing voicemail from being stored on the iPhone, i.e., disabling Apple’s Visual Voicemail. Similarly, SMS text messages are managed through the Google hub—replacing the iPhone’s text messaging feature.

That’s interesting. In other words, according to this official response (which could still be bullshit, mind you), what happened is that Steve Jobs (to be so anal, it would have to be him) decided the app was not acceptable because, if you started using it, your voicemail and text messages wouldn’t reach the iPhone’s Phone app anymore.

(I’m elaborating on this because it can easily be misinterpreted — if you follow the wording of the answer, the problem is not that it offers an alternate interface that replicates the system functionality of the iPhone. Even though that stupid “reason” has been used so many times for other apps, you’d expect Apple to stick to it.)

Interestingly, that’s exactly the kind of reasoning that the FCC might object to, and act upon: Apple just very officially declared that it wanted to stifle innovation and competition in the mobile space… and it’s so funny that they would have done it with AT&T not even knowing about it.

One still has to wonder whether — or how much — the recent evolution of the relationship between Google and Apple influenced that decision. But the sad thing is that, yes, you can absolutely imagine Jobs being outraged that an application would make users completely bypass his iPhone’s precious, original visual voicemail system and the SMS/MMS application he lovingly offered the world.

In addition, the iPhone user’s entire Contacts database is transferred to Google’s servers, and we have yet to obtain any assurances from Google that this data will only be used in appropriate ways.

If the app does this without asking you first, then it’s reason enough to reject it. (But if it does ask, it’s a moot excuse.)

Google is of course free to […] provide its “Google-branded” user experience on other phones, including Android-based phones, and let consumers make their choices.

Leave us the fuck alone and go play with their crappy handsets if you don’t like ours. Jobs oversaw the writing of this letter, didn’t he? (Well, of course he’d have to.)

From time to time, AT&T has expressed concerns regarding network efficiency and potential network congestion associated with certain applications, and Apple takes such concerns into consideration.

That’s… vague.

Apple does not know if there is a VoIP element in the way the Google Voice application routes calls and messages, and whether VoIP technology is used over the 3G network by the application.

If the app has been stuck in “requiring unexpected additional time for review” limbo for several months, shouldn’t Apple have an idea by now about whether Google Voice uses VoIP? (Especially when everybody knows it doesn’t?)

There are more than 40 full-time trained reviewers, and at least two different reviewers study each application so that the review process is applied uniformly.

Oh, that’s interesting. I wonder how long that policy has been in place. It does explain why I saw someone log into Web is Pink from Apple HQ a couple of days after I submitted the app, yet it took one more week, and another login, before they approved it.

(Now that you mention it, that could have seemed obvious at the time. But you know how it is about hindsight. And I did figure that it must have been two different reviewers; I just never thought they would have instituted that as a policy.)

Apple also established an App Store executive review board that determines procedures and sets policy for the review process, as well as reviews applications that are escalated to the board because they raise new or complex issues. The review board meets weekly and is comprised of senior management with responsibilities for the App Store.

That’s also very interesting: so maybe the dreaded “Your application is requiring unexpected additional time for review” isn’t complete bullshit after all — it’s just that your application has been flagged for the executive review board, and like any board of executives they’re not in a great hurry to deal with each and every case, because they’re already busy enough with other duties. And, when they have prominent applications from Google to debate week after week, you can’t expect your own app to be processed right away… or within your lifetime.