Google is building a Web browser-based application for Google Voice to run on Apple's iPhone. The app will be an alternative to the original Google Voice app iPhone rejected, allegedly for duplicating iPhone features. Google declines to provide more details but New York Times columnist David Pogue said it "will take the form of a specialized, iPhone-shaped Web page."
Apple may have rejected the
Google Voice
application Google submitted to the Apple App Store two months ago, but
the search engine is working on another version of the application to
bring to millions of iPhone users, according to a new
report from New York Times technology writer David Pogue.
In a piece questioning whether the Google
Voice application, which provides one number through which calls to users'
home, work and cell phones may be funneled, Pogue writes blithely about a new version of the application Google is developing for the
iPhone:
Already, Google says it is readying a replacement for
the Google Voice app that will offer exactly the same features as the rejected
appexcept that it will take the form of a specialized, iPhone-shaped Web page.
For all intents and purposes, it will behave exactly the same as the app would
have; you can even install it as an icon on your Home screen.
Resource Library:
When asked for more details about this
application, a Google spokesperson said "we've always said we would
like to bring this functionality to the iPhone and leveraging advances
in mobile browsers is one way we could do that. It's too early to say
(what that will be).
The spokesperson declined further comment.
Taking Pogue's and Google's comments together, it's clear
Google is building a new Voice app to be deployed through the Web browser, not as a native iPhone app.
Hence, Google continues to walk a tightrope created by Apple's intricate App Store
rules. Google cannot build applications that will overlap with functionality on
the iPhone and hope to see them endorsed by Apple.
However, nothing can stop Google from building a special
Google Voice application users may access from a Web browser. Google has been
down this road before with Apple.
When the search engine company built a
version of its Google Latitude social location app to run natively on the
iPhone, Apple asked Google to build a Web-based version. Google assented:
"After we developed a Latitude application for the
iPhone, Apple requested we release Latitude as a Web application in order to
avoid confusion with Maps on the iPhone, which uses Google to serve maps tiles,"
wrote Mat Balez, Google Mobile Team product manager, in a blog post July 23, just days before the Google Voice-Apple firestorm
ignited.
Word of the Google Voice rejections in the App Store
surfaced July 27, when Google confirmed its Google Voice app had been denied entry to the App Store. Sean
Kovacs, creator for Google Voice third-party app GV Mobile, reported his app
had been removed from the App Store for duplicating features of the iPhone. VoiceCentral
later reported the same.
Apple's cavalier hush hush attitude to its lateral application
rejections removals angered developers, bloggers and iPhone users,spurring a minor revolt.
This caught the attention of the Federal Communications
Commission, which July 31 sent letters to Google, Apple and iPhone carrier AT&T to get to the heart
of the matter. James D. Schlichting, acting chief of the wireless
telecommunications bureau of the FCC, signed the letters and asked the
companies for to respond by August 21.
Stay tuned. EWeek is watching for two things here. One,
it will be interesting to see how Apple and AT&T respond to the FCC. Two,
it will be interesting to see what the new Google Voice app for the iPhone is
like.
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