Apple approves another Google Voice-like app
By Michael W. Jones
While the Google Voice iPhone app continues to be hung up in the App Store approval process, Apple has approved yet another app which is similar in function to the Google product.
An iPhone app from Vonage, which contains many of the same features as does the Google Voice app, has been approved and is now for sale in the App Store. Previously, without much controversy, Apple approved a similar application from Skype. Perhaps the only mystery now is specifically why Apple is refusing to approve the Voice application when it seems to have no quarrel with similar applications from other vendors.
The Vonage app is being released simultaneously for the iPhone, the Blackberry, and iPod Touch MP3 player. As far as is known publicly, Vonage had no difficulty getting the iPhone and Touch apps approved. The Vonage app, which is free from the App Store, allows users to make low-cost international calls over Wi-Fi and cellular voice networks. Once the Vonage app is installed, users purchase calling credits using a credit card. In their press release, Vonage said it will eventually make available a flat-rate calling plan with a recurring subscription fee for frequent callers, according to a New York Times story..
Marc Lefar, Vonage’s chief executive said as a part of the announcement that “Given the penetration of smartphones and the global increase of phones that can access broadband networks, the time is now for a company like Vonage to take advantage of the market.” Although the Vonage app on the Touch will currently only work via WiFi, Lefar noted that “We’re not trying to drive voice traffic over the data network at this point. Though we do look forward to the wireless networks in the U.S. opening up so we can launch voice and messaging apps over 3G and 4G networks.”
This begs the question of why other telephony apps are suitable in the mind of Apple while the Google Voice app is not. The excuse so far has been that the Google app replaces some of the native features of the iPhone’s “Phone” app. It would appear, however, that both the Vonage and Skype apps also replace those functions. There is more here than meets the eye (or ear) but it seems that none of the parties are willing to talk about what is actually going on with Apple and Google Voice.
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October 5th, 2009
Apple is weary of their looming competition of a mobile OS. Would you expect them to release a “Microsoft Voice” app? They’ll just keep trying to suppress Google as much as possible until they release their ‘cooler’ version of the Voice system. Thank God I have the G1