Guest writer Gary Sims is a freelance technology consultant from the UK. He is the senior blogger of the Hi-Tech Squad.

Has Apple gone mad? Imagine Microsoft try to say which programs we can install on our PCs. Well, Apple is doing exactly that with the iPhone and is rejecting Google Voice Applications left, right and center and now the FCC are getting involved too!

Last week it was revealed that Apple has suddenly begun to remove third party iPhone applications for Google Voice from their App Store, saying that they duplicated some of the iPhone’s functionality.

This caused quite a stir amongst iPhone developers and bloggers and the noise grew when it was revealed that Apple even rejected Google’s own official Google Voice application submitted six weeks previously.

All this fuss has awoken the The Federal Communications Commission and it is looking into Apple’s rejection of Google Voice, and has sent letters to AT&T, Apple, and Google to find out what’s going on.

The opening paragraph of the letter from the FCC (published on TechCrunch) reads:

Recent press reports indicate that Apple has declined to approve the Google Voice application for the iPhone and has removed related (and previously approved) third-party applications from the iPhone App Store. In light of pending FCC proceedings regarding wireless open access (RM-11361) and handset exclusivity (RM-11497), we are interested in a more complete understanding of this situation.

All three companies have until the close of business on Friday, August 21, 2009 to reply to the FCC.

Have you say… Do you think Apple is starting to act like a bad mannered corporate or does it have the right to control 100% the apps the run on its devices?

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