The Google Voice app was rejected by Apple for its App Store but the service stubbornly returns as a Web app for both iPhone and Palm WebOS device users.

T&A: On September 2009, we posted news that Google Voice was rejected by Apple for its App Store service because it conflicts with Apple’s core telephony services on the iPhone. Well the app is back, this time in the form of a HTML5-based Web application accessible at m.google.com/voice via the Web browser on your mobile device.

According to Google’s blog, the Google Voice web app will be accessible for iPhone (version 3.0 or higher) and Palm WebOS device users. Functions within the app like AppCache, lets you interact with web apps without a network connection while local databases allow you to store data locally on the device, so even if you close the browser, you lose no data.

Google Voice basically does what a standard telephony service does, be it making phone calls, listen to voicemail, read voicemail transcripts, send/receive text messages as well as make international voice calls based on Google Voice’s international IDD rates.

Meanwhile, here’s a video demonstrating what Google Voice does:

The Google Voice app was rejected by Apple for its App Store because it encroached on Apple's core telephony features for the iPhone.

T&A: Knowledge@Wharton has put up a feature on Google stepping on Apple’s toes recently when it wanted to distribute its Google Voice app on Apple’s App Store for the iPhone.

Apple rejected the app because it felt Google Voice interfered with the Apple user experience with its own core telephony features, such as voicemail, text messaging and calls. But that’s just one potential competitor out of many others.

According to Wharton, Google has a dominant position in Internet search, but has since moved into other areas like free office production software and the Android mobile computing platform — making it look like a younger Microsoft in the mid-1990s — an ambitious company with a growing list of competitors.

The caution given is to avoid a clash with antitrust issues (and privacy advocates) in the future, prompting a similar predicament Microsoft faced with regulators many years later. The difference however is that most of Google’s offerings are free — from office productivity software, to the Chrome Web browser — and “free” is always a popular word.

While analysts share that Google’s main goal in expanding beyond its core search business model is to expand into areas where Internet access and mobility happen, its ultimate plan is to organize the world’s information so that more people will use its free services online, allowing it to capitalize on reach and grow its search advertising business.

It is no wonder then that though it is dominant on the desktop and notebook space, it wants to secure the consumer reach in the mobile space as well. But we’re certain the Google Voice app rejection from Apple is just a bump on the road for the Mountain View, California-based company. (Editor opinions: 1)

HWM Indonesia

HWM Indonesia: It’s a common practice among competing parties to “block” access to another’s applications.

There’s nothing wrong with that since Apple has to protect its core business for telephony with the iPhone.

However, Google should take some lessons from the experiences Microsoft had to go through in the past and recently in the EU, with the occasional fine making the news now and then.

T&A: Google introduced a new service today called Google Voice, which basically allows users to store voicemail messages in their email inbox, transcribe them into text-based messages and send them out as email or SMS text messages. While speculators are wondering how Google intends to generate revenue with the service, the genesis of Google Voice came from Google’s acquisition of Grand Central Communications in 2007.

Using speech recognition tech Google developed for its Goog-411 (a telephone directory service available only in the US and Canada), Google Voice will be available to existing users of GrandCentral first, before being available for public use later on. GrandCentral offers quite a few features, such as a single number to ring your home, work and mobile phones, with a centralized voicemail inbox you could access via the Web. It is expected that Google Voice will have these same set of features incorporated into the service. (Editor opinions: 1)

Check out a video demonstrating how Google Voice works:

Terence Ang, Supervising Editor, HWM

Terence (HWM): A fellow colleague of mine has always believed that it’s human nature to talk more than to write or read (unless of course, if you’re a recluse or lack the power of speech).

While the world’s abuzz with Google’s next big attempt to “digitize” the speech-o-sphere via Google Voice, what the company really is doing is to pull all forms of thought and idea [whether it's written in long form (Google Book Search), short form (Google Web Search), spoken (Google Voice), geographical (Google Earth) or personal (Gmail)] and put them into one massive digital sandbox. Within this sandbox, the company can tailor its keyword search network much more effectively and with that, enhance the mileage and accuracy for its keyword ads. (more…)