Apple Kills Google Voice App

Lost amid all the buzz about the Microsoft-Yahoo partnership was news that Apple, which has often been considered Google's (GOOG) best friend, just jabbed the search giant with a punch in the nose. Google Voice is a new smartphone app that does all kinds of nifty tricks: it allows multiple phone numbers to be routed to the same voice mail, for example, and allows users to read voice mail messages. But yesterday, Apple (AAPL) decided to ban the new app from its iPhone app store.

Why, you may ask? Apple ain't sayin'; its spokespeople have so far refused to comment to the press. But Los Angeles Times reporter Alex Pham has a pretty good idea. One of Google Voice's best features is the service's cheap overseas calls, and that may have been the dealbreaker for Apple, which does a lot of business with AT&T (T). If Google steals long-distance and text-messaging customers from AT&T, that could ultimately hurt Apple's bottom line. "From Apple's standpoint, why embrace something that could end up being a competitor down the road?" technology analyst Martin Pyykkonen told the Times.

This hasn't won Apple any love from tech writers like PC World's David Coursey. "Apple should be ashamed," he writes. "And its iPhone applications monopoly should be broken."