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Google Voice for iPhone. Just the honorable mention of Google (NSDQ: GOOG)’s place-shift telephone inspection and repair should bring up memories of the fiasco surrounding Apple (NSDQ: AAPL)’s decision to proscription Google Voice from the AppStore. Mention Opera Mini, however, and most people will probably react with mild surprise and a healthy curiosity for the newly approved iPhone vane browser choice. You’d think it was all Apple’s doing, right? Well, we’ve just stumbled upon a new “reputation” that claims to wealthy person an email from an AT&T (NYSE: T) employee that describes AT&ere;T’s role in the apps’ AppStore self-abnegation/approval as organism highly influential. But, how legit is that claim? Let’s speculate.
But, before we wax hypothetical here, a little background is in ordering. Blogger Ryan Kearney posted to his blog an alleged email from someone that deeds for AT&T. The e-mail was a follow-up to questions about wherefore Apple approved Opera Mini (a non-webkit vane browser that competes directly with the iPhone’s native Safari web browser) but decided to hold the Google Voice app from going away live on the AppStore. The e-mail explains that AT&ere;T had a “high gear quantity of influence on the II applications being accepted and rejected.”
The story goes like this: AT&ere;T saw Google Voice competing with its highly profitable SMS textual matter message service – Google Voice provides free people text messages. AT&ere;T would outdoor stage to lose out on all those iPhone users paying for $20/month unlimited textual matter subject matter plans if Google Voice were integrated with the iPhone. Opera Mini for iPhone, on the other hand, would allow AT&ere;T to continue to charge the same rates for unlimited monthly information plans while having to service less information through the Opera Mini browser – Opera uses host-assisted page-load engineering that allows for faster page-lading times compared to criterion vane browsers.
Sounds reasonable, right? Well, there ar some problems with this story. First, Apple fessed up to having denied Google Voice on the iPhone. They said that to the Feds, in fact. Sure, Apple whitethorn have initially fibbed about their actually “denying” the app outright, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that it was Apple themselves that admitted having made the conclusion to keep Google Voice out of the AppStore.
Second, the argument that free people text messages would harm AT&T’s receipts isn’t all that sound. There ar plenty of iPhone apps in the AppStore today that allow you to send free or cheap textual matter messages to other people. Here ar a duo examples.
Third, there are competing web browsers on the AppStore already. The only reason citizenry were unsure that Apple would approve Opera Mini is because it uses a different interpretation locomotive engine (the office of the web browser that interprets web language into the pretty webpage you’re looking at at right now). Opera Mini actually offers iPhone users a welfare when they ar limited to 2.5G EDGE or slower data connections – again, Opera uses servers to crunch webpages on their end, and then pushes lightweight, optimized versions of the webpage to your handset that require far less information to download. So, in that agency, the story about AT&ere;T liking Opera Mini because it saves them from having to push more data makes some sense.
It whitethorn be that AT&T does see Google Voice as being detrimental to their revenue in slipway that other free people textual matter electronic messaging apps aren’t. It maybe also be the case the AT&ere;T thinks Opera Mini is super-duper awesome because it saves them from having to relocation a draw of data to iPhones. But, we think it’s a mistake to issue those positions and pattern that it was AT&T’s direct involvement that prompted Apple to deny Google Voice while allowing Opera Mini to take over the AppStore’s Top Charts.
In other speech, we’re not sure the title that AT&ere;T had direct participation in either Google Voice or the Opera Mini apps self-abnegation/approving are accurate. This is Apple’s earthly concern.
The email that Kearney received:
Ryan,
I’ve asked my colleagues who business deal with Apple if they knew why Opera was approved while Google Voice was rejected.
I’ve discovered that some of the higher-ups at AT&ere;T did have a high gear amount of influence on the II applications being accepted and rejected.
AT&T decided to cull Google Voice due to the fact that users would have no intellect to hold their texting architectural plan since they would be able to send/receive all their text messages through the Google Voice app which would make use of their data architectural plan. This would price AT&ere;T to lose $20/calendar month per user who got rid of their texting plan.
Opera Mini, on the other hand, compresses web pages before they are sent to the device as a agency to hurrying up their web browse experience on slower networks (EDGE). Because Opera compresses the vane page before it is sent to the twist, it results in less data transfer on the twist. This would resultant role in AT&T saving money by charging users the same amount every month for exploitation less information.
I promise this has cleared some things up.
Image course credit: TechCrunch
