Arrington to Apple: Liar liar pants on fire
Arrington on The Charlie Rose Show. Image: TechCrunch
"A total lie." "Untrue." "Misleading." "Complete fabrication." "Way beyond misleading."
Those are some of the nicer things Michael Arrington had to say about Apple (AAPL) in his analysis of what he calls "Apple's long rambling letter to the FCC."
Arrington, for those who don't have Techmeme on their morning reading list, is the former securities lawyer and serial entrepreneur who runs TechCrunch, arguably Silicon Valley's most influential tech blog.
The letter he's referring to is Apple's formal response to an inquiry by the Federal Communications Commission into the role AT&T (T) played in Apple's rejection of Google's (GOOG) powerful Google Voice app. See here.
AT&T's answer: we played no role. Google's answer: redacted. Apple's answer: we never rejected the app; we just haven't, for various reasons, approved it yet. (link)
Arrington's response: Apple is lying through its teeth. In particular, he writes:
The iPhone's secret blindspot, revisited
Michael Arrington's post today on Techcrunch describing the promise of an iPhone-only social network — one that, among other things, could tell you where your friends are and what they're up to at any time — hits a topic that a Swedish ex-pat named Peter S. Magnusson nailed back on July 1, 2007, three days after the iPhone was released.
His theory: Apple (AAPL) missed a huge opportunity with the original iPhone because, at a fundamental level, Steve Jobs doesn't understand social networks.
Eight months later, there's no evidence out of Cupertino that anything has changed on that front, and Magnusson's thesis is as relevant today as it was then. You can read his original piece here. Below the fold: our July 3 take on it, with a link to the spirited discussion it sparked.
