Posted by: Goran Paunovic in Our Blog on Jul 28, 2009
Today we learned that Apple has rejected Google's official Google Voice iPhone application. Apple has also begun disabling and pulling all applications that take advantage of Google Voice functionality, claiming that they "duplicate features that come with the iPhone".
"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." said Google spokesperson.
There are also speculations that AT&T is reason for this rejection as a result of losing revenue on a short messaging system. I remember last year there ware other iPhone apps in the App Store that used Google Voice API for sending free SMS messages. The good example is an Infinite SMS app, developed by Inner Fence, two-person startup from Seattle. Beginning of this year Google start disabling all non-Google 3rd party software from sending free text messages. So is this just Apple's payback or maybe a big fear of a Google Android open source platform?