The most important thing (to me) about the FCC’s investigation of Apple and AT&T

You probably heard that the FCC has taken an interest in Apple’s rejection of the Google Voice app and requested information from the three companies.  Anyone who has read Stromcode over the past 6 or so months knows that this news makes me uncommonly happy, but I haven’t posted about it.  I didn’t need to.  It’s all over the place.

As a side note, it is interesting to suddenly see so many developers echoing a sentiment I first expressed in early June here on Stromcode, and first claimed many months before that: Apple hates its developers.  Kind of surprising that it has taken this long for the rest of the world to catch up, especially since Apple has done everything it can to make that clear.  When you have to pay upfront to develop for a platform, hand over 30% of your proceeds, and subject your creations to an absurd and sometimes humiliating approval process, to then have Apple completely ignore your emails and offer no way to reach them on the phone just drives the point home: they don’t like you, and they could give a crap if you, your apps or your company are successful.

Anyway, on to the main point: why I am most happy about the FCC investigation.  In the letter to Apple, among the many, many questions asked about the relationship between Apple and AT&T are a few questions that should make every iPhone developer cheer:

•  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?
• 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?

Although these questions are likely of more interest to the FCC as they pertain to AT&T possibly being involved in keeping VOIP and high bandwidth apps of their 3G network, I am filled with hope that a body with actually power — as opposed to me with my little code blog — is asking the same questions I’ve been asking since January.

I wonder if Apple will wait 30 days to respond to the FCC, or will the FCC get a little bit better treatment than the developers who made the app store a success?