incomplete AVRCP support in ipad, iphone and ipod

UPDATE: In iOS 4.1 apple supports pause, play, stop, next track and previous track for AVRCP. Transferring metadata is still not supported, as far as I can tell.

AVRCP is a bluetooth profile that allows audio video devices to be remotely controlled over bluetooth.

Apple implements AVRCP in all its bluetooth devices, but it implements a selective part of the protocol. However, Apple only implements the ability to Play/Pause/Stop as documented here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3647

What is the issue with this? Well, if you want to skip a track, or go back a track, you need to physically take out your ipod. This is very inconvenient and can be dangerous while driving. If your device supports it, you may be able to use voice commands.

Why does Apple not implement the complete AVRCP protocol? It is obviously technically feasible to do this. In fact, I think it's only a couple lines/methods that are currently commented out somewhere in the Apple codebase. There is a also jailbroken app that already does this beautifully.

What it comes down to is that this is simply a business decision. Apple makes too much money from the royalties of their proprietary cables and connectors. If people were able to entirely control their ipods via bluetooth, then Apple loses a decent revenue stream.

There is also the the bigger (less apparent) issue, if people don't need to see their mobile device, they might not care whether it is an iphone or a droid, or a kin.

This is also one of the reasons why wifi syncing is not allowed. If you could wirelessly sync your mobile device, and remotely control it, you would never need to see it. I think other mobile device manufacturers should exploit this.

There are numerous threads on this topic on apples websites. One active thread is this one:
http://discussions.info.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2041749&start=0&tstart=0

Many comments read, "Maybe in 3.1.3 they'll add support", Maybe in "3.2", "Maybe in 4.0". People want this feature, people are waiting for this feature, people are begging for this feature.

But Apple is not about ease of use or about their customers anymore. Apple is now about the moolah. Apple is now the man.