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“It’s none of your damn business!”

August 10, 2009 by Don Watkins

After news came out that the Google Voice application for the iPhone had been rejected from Apple’s App Store, the Federal Communications Commission pounced. The FCC sent a “letter of inquiry” to Apple (and its partner AT&T), demanding that it justify its decision. (The letters came shortly after the FCC announced a separate investigation of exclusive partnerships between phone carriers and cell phone makers, such as the one between AT&T and Apple.)

Here’s the information the FCC demanded from Apple:

  1. Why did Apple reject the Google Voice application for iPhone and remove related third-party applications from its App Store? In addition to Google Voice, which related third-party applications were removed or have been rejected? Please provide the specific name of each application and the contact information for the developer.
  2. Did Apple act alone, or in consultation with AT&T, in deciding to reject the Google Voice application and related applications? If the latter, please describe the communications between Apple and AT&T in connection with the decision to reject Google Voice. Are there any contractual conditions or non-contractual understandings with AT&T that affected Apple’s decision in this matter?
  3. Does AT&T have any role in the approval of iPhone applications generally (or in certain cases)? If so, under what circumstances, and what role does it play? What roles are specified in the contractual provisions between Apple and AT&T (or any non-contractual understandings) regarding the consideration of particular iPhone applications?
  4. Please explain any differences between the Google Voice iPhone application and any Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) applications that Apple has approved for the iPhone. Are any of the approved VoIP applications allowed to operate on AT&T’s 3G network?
  5. What other applications have been rejected for use on the iPhone and for what reasons? Is there a list of prohibited applications or of categories of applications that is provided to potential vendors/developers? If so, is this posted on the iTunes website or otherwise disclosed to consumers?
  6. What are the standards for considering and approving iPhone applications? What is the approval process for such applications (timing, reasons for rejection, appeal process, etc.)? What is the percentage of applications that are rejected? What are the major reasons for rejecting an application?

Apple has no choice but to obey the FCC’s dictates, so allow me to say to the FCC on its behalf: “It’s none of your damn business!”

Apple’s brilliant engineers and designers revolutionized the cell phone industry with the iPhone, and increased the value of the phone to users by establishing its popular App Store. It has improved the lives of millions of its customers–as this satisfied iPhone user can attest. It has every right to decide what products to offer, what deals to enter into, and what products to sell in its stores. If it thinks that including Google Voice in its app store will put it at a competitive disadvantage, it has every right to exclude them. It has every right to maximize its profits through whatever voluntary arrangements it can secure. And there is no reason on earth–no reason morally, politically, or economically–why it should have to justify those decisions to FCC bureaucrats.

The same principle that applies to us as individuals properly applies to business. So long as a business isn’t using force or fraud, its decisions are its to make as a matter of right, and are of no concern to the government. (Sadly, the same logic that leads the government to regulate the economic affairs of businesses is leading it to expand its control over our private lives as well.)

The FCC is trying to justify its inquiry through the bogus claim that Apple’s actions could threaten “consumer choice.” But the truth is that companies like Apple radically expand consumer choice by inventing products like the iPhone. Consumers are then free to buy their product or not. But there is no “right” of consumers to “choose” what products and services Apple offers.

Instead of dictating how companies are run under the guise of “consumer choice,” the government should start protecting consumer and producer freedom. It might start by writing another letter to Apple–a letter of apology.

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