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We first saw the Twitter message come from GV Mobile developer Sean Kovacs who alerted us that GV Mobile was being pulled from the App Store and sadly the bad news did not stop there.

It turns out that a short while later, Apple also pulled all of the other Google Voice apps including VoiceCentral and GVDialer. Based on that, most people were left scratching their heads as to why, and honestly I think most still are. Of course, most also seem to be blaming AT&T, which I was a little skeptical of at first.

Then, I saw the news that the official Google Voice app that was submitted for approval received word of a denial. So, basically it seems that not only has Apple pulled all of the existing Google Voice apps, but they are denying entry to any new ones. According from a TechCrunch posting, this is the official word that has come from Google;

“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.”

Getting back to the denial, I would imagine (assuming AT&T is behind this) that it is in regards to text messaging, because making a call still required you to use your AT&T minutes. Anyway, in the meantime, iPhone users who were not able to download any of the apps can continue to make calls and have their Google Voice number show as the caller ID simply by dialing their Google Voice number and pressing 2, of course, that does little to help ease the pain of these removals.

Finally, on the flip side, the Google Voice apps that have been purchased should remain available on your iPhone — that is as long as you do not delete the app from your iPhone and iTunes.

Now, maybe we could all band together and encourage all of the Google Voice app developers (including Google) to submit their apps to Cydia. Sure, many people are not going to jailbreak just because of that, but if Google were to go that route, it would certainly send a message to Apple. That said, that is wishful thinking and I would not expect it to actually happen.

At this point, I, just like many others would like to see something official come from either Apple or AT&T as to why these were removed and denied. Until then I can say that I am glad that I occasionally cheat on my iPhone with a G1.

[TechCrunch]