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Google Voice and App Store Rejections

7/31/2009 7:55:00 AM

There has been another of those events that I like to call the Apple Rejects Moment. It's the moment when yet another App Store rejection occurs and leaves a person scratching there head and wondering how and why it occured.

This time it happened to Google Voice, a call management service and a few other apps that worked in concert with Google Voice. The rejection came after the app had already been available for sale in the App store for months. Why the sudden turn around you ask? No one really knows since Apple isn't obligated to say. At most people can speculate on the cause.

The number one reason that many people think the app was rejected was due to the beheast of AT&T who feared the Google Voice App and the potential it had to cause a substantial revenue loss. I'm not saying that this with any certainty, just looking at publicly available facts.

  We know that AT&T has a clearly defined monopoly as the iPhone's official U.S. Carrier. A contract which has seen millions of new customers for AT&T, and billions of dollars in revenue since the iPhone's launch. When we take that into account we see that a clear motive exists for pressuring Apple to reject an app that is actually benefitting Apple in the long run.

Apples benefit from the sale of the Google Voice in the App store is two ways. The first would be it helps to generate direct profit from sales of apps that work with Google Voice. The second point is that it pushes more potential customers to AT&T as monthly customers.

Some people will argue and say that the sale of one app does not have that much of an impact on sales. The answer would be yes, they are correct. One app does not provide a significant increase to the number of iPhones sold.

The benefit of app sales comes from a cumulative effect of dozens of apps, which Google Voice is only one part. When a potential shopper sees tens of thousands of apps that they can potentially purchase, they like the fact that such large leads to variety. A competitor that has only a few hundred apps available will not look as appealing to a potential customer.

People will not stop buying and developing for the iPhone. That's a clear fact. What will happen is there will be more reluctance on the part of developers to make a substantial investment in large scale applications for fear that the app will be rejected. Small companies and individual develops cannot afford to invest months in an application, only to worry whether it will be rejected.

  What will happen to the App store unless Apple changes it's ways is a reduction in quality apps, and a proliferation of smaller apps that will be made.  

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