Apple has been expected to file a comment in response to the FCC’s probe into how Google, Apple and AT&T were involved, if at all, in the rejection of a Google Voice iPhone app from the AppStore. Today, Apple posted a comprehensive document discussing its answers to the FCC’s inquiry into why it supposedly rejected an official Google Voice application for the iPhone. Apple defends their decision to boot Google Voice apps with the reasoning that Cupertino was just looking out for the iPhone user’s best interest. The comment cites everything from security concerns to usability issues to agreements with AT&T as reasons for rejecting certain iPhone apps from entering the AppStore.
Apple says that they acted alone in the decision to kick the Google Voice apps out of the iPhone’s AppStore. AT&T did not have a say in the matter. But, Apple does admit to having a contractual obligation to AT&T to keep iPhone apps from initiating VoIP calls over the carrier’s 3G cellular network – which accounts for all the iPhone VoIP apps that are limited to WiFi-only operation.