Last month, Google Voice’s iPhone application was rejected from the iPhone app store, a controversial move that the FCC is looking into. Now, it appears that Google may be working to circumvent Apple and AT&T, or at least seriously force their hand, by developing an iPhone optimized web application for Google Voice.
According to The New York Times, “Google says it is readying a replacement for the Google Voice app that will offer exactly the same features as the rejected app—except 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.”
This is precisely what Google did recently with Latitude for iPhone, when Apple “requested we release Latitude as a web application in order to avoid confusion with Maps on the iPhone, which uses Google (Google) to serve maps tiles.” Using the Web to make calls on iPhone is nothing new or overly complex either: Jajah launched an iPhone optimized interface for VoIP calling all the way back in 2007.