According to sources, Apple’s App Store has rejected one of the newest Google innovations. From one popular tech news source, Apple is “rotten to the core” for stiffing “one of the best things to happen to telephony services in a very long time.”

One Google representative remarked, “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.” But apparently not Apple’s.

Google Voice, is a new-and-improved online telephone service. One of its best features is that it assimilates all of a user’s numbers into one single phone number. Talk about simplifying things. If a caller dials your home, office, cell phone, or any one of your other phones, you can still take the call anywhere you want. Google voice offers dozens of other features like call screening, listen in, phone forwarding, voicemail transcripts, conference calls, voicemail sharing, SMS notifications, caller-personalized greetings, and a bunch of other things that only Google would think of.

Google Voice, for all its power, seems like a natural choice for an iPhone app. After all, with thousands of cheap, useless, and error-riddled apps in the App Store, why not let Google’s get by? From Apple’s perspective, Google Voice is a mere replication of the iPhone’s major features.

But “mere replication” doesn’t quite describe Google Voice. The problem is deeper than mimicked features. It’s called the elimination of competition. It is far more likely that the blame for the rejection lies at the feet of AT&T, not some ornery Apple techie angrily clicking “no” on a new app submission. It’s true; Google Voice offers features—like talking to people on a virtual phone—that, according to one source, would ‘compete with the services that AT&T charges for.’

Google Voice seems like an injurious blow to the service of a carrier like AT&T, which already offers SMS messages, voicemail, etc.—features which Google Voice provides for free, plus a whole lot more.

But does this come as a surprise? Apple has the prerogative over which apps they say “yes” or “no” to. If it hurts biz then, hey, why offer it as an app? But will it hurt business? Maybe it will hurt business in a way that Apple doesn’t anticipate. The rejection of Google Voice, and any other forthcoming apps with similar services, may steer potential iPhone buyers away from the iPhone and toward competition phones like the Palm, or Android devices. Now that would hurt.

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