Apple rejects Google Voice

I often find the strangest things funny. For example I actually find it funny that Google is being stifled by Apple. I cannot really explain why; it is just funny.

Maybe it is because when using the iPhone I am stuck with Google Maps (unless I want to pay for another service). Or, that my only option for search is Google. Perhaps it is that Google and Apple have a shared director.

Still it is somewhat comical to see applications like Google Latitude and Google Voice get rejected by Apple. Apple's reasons for doing this? Well for Latitude Apple felt that people would confuse it with the current Map application. For Google voice it is that it duplicates existing iPhone functions.

Both are thin excuses at best, Latitude was probably not allowed because it competes (in a very small way) with a rumored Mobile Me product that Apple is working on for social networking and Google Voice is a direct threat to Apples single US Carrier AT&T. Google got around Latitude's rejection by turning it into a Web App, they will more than likely do something similar with Google Voice. So while this is an inconvenience to be sure, it is not a show stopper.

So fear not Google fans, you will see Google Voice on the iPhone; it will just be in another form.

In the end, I think what really makes me laugh is the slight chance that all of this App rejection is nothing more than a smoke screen for the Anti-Trust Investigation by the US DOJ into the shared directors between Apple and Google.

Food for thought...