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Google Claims That Apple Did Reject Google Voice iPhone Application [Updated]

Friday September 18, 2009 9:04 am PDT by Eric Slivka
Google today announced today that it has released an unredacted copy (PDF) of its response to an investigation by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission into Apple's apparent rejection of the company's Google Voice iPhone application. Most significantly, Google's filing claims that Apple Senior Vice President Phil Schiller personally informed Google that the Google Voice iPhone application had been rejected for the reason that it "duplicated the core dialer functionality of the iPhone".

The primary points of contact between the two companies were Alan Eustace, Google Senior Vice President of Engineering & Research, and Phil Schiller, Apple Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing. On July 7, Mr. Eustace and Mr. Schiller spoke over the phone. It was during this call that Mr. Schiller informed Mr. Eustace that Apple was rejecting the Google Voice application for the reasons described above in 2(a).

The claim directly contradicts Apple's response to the FCC, which asserted that the Google Voice application had not been rejected and was still being studied. It is unknown at this time how the FCC is proceeding to reconcile the differing accounts.

The FCC had initially posted a redacted version of Google response at the request of Google, which had made the request in order to protect "sensitive commercial communications". After several requests from individuals and organization made under the Freedom of Information Act regarding the redacted content and in light of Apple's public posting of an unredacted version of its response, Google decided to allow the full text of its response to be published.

Update: Silicon Alley Insider reports that Apple has issued a statement reiterating its contention that the Google Voice iPhone application has not been rejected.

We do not agree with all of the statements made by Google in their FCC letter. Apple has not rejected the Google Voice application and we continue to discuss it with Google.



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