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It appears that Google can’t get any love from Apple. Just days after the electronics company pulled rank on Google’s iPhone aspirations for Google Latitude, we learn that Google Voice has also been blackballed.
According to a Google spokesperson:
We work hard to bring Google applications to a number of mobile platforms, including the iPhone. Apple did not approve the Google Voice application we submitted six weeks ago to the Apple App Store. We will continue to work to bring our services to iPhone users — for example, by taking advantage of advances in mobile browsers.
Not only that, but Apple has apparently started pulling the plug on third-party iPhone apps that provide Google Voice features.
Jason Kincaid speculates that AT&T is behind the move–likely exerting pressure on Apple to prevent approval of a service that could clearly compete with the wireless company. But, what I don’t understand is how did Skype get its iPhone application approved and Google didn’t? If the fear of cheap long distance and SMS messages are part of Apple’s concerns about a Google Voice app, why did it overlook the same features offered in Skype?
With that in mind, I think AT&T might just be a convenient scapegoat–after all, wouldn’t it have also cried foul over the Skype app? On the contrary, I believe that Apple is just as equally to blame for Google Voice receiving the “rejected” stamp. After all, Google’s Android is fast becoming a threat to the iPhone. Much more of a threat than Google Voice is to AT&T.
With two strikes in the past week, clearly being on Apple’s board of directors isn’t worth a hoot. I wonder how much longer Google CEO Eric Schmidt will feel cozy sitting around the table of a company that keeps slapping it down?
