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A Google spokesperson confirmed Apple has rejected its iPhone application for Google Voice.  Sean Kovac’s awesome app GV Dialer was also removed from the store.  Apple has made a clean sweep of removing anything Google Voice related from its store, angering many users.

• “I have to register my frustration and disappointment.”
• “I’m getting tired of this AT&T/Apple control-freakishness.”
• “Wow, this is really messed up.”

In a quote from TechCrunch:

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.

So now, dejected and kicked to the curb, Google will build a web app to work around Apple’s wishes.  The expectation by many is that AT&T is behind this move, as Google Voice allows free SMS and calling that can shift calls off expensive mobile lines.  AT&T must be feeling the heat.

We’ve seen Apple fold on some apps that received an outcry from the public, but I suspect that isn’t going to happen here.  Google Voice has the potential to be a game changer in voice and perhaps Android and the Palm Pre (hopefully) will have to carry the banner forward.  A web app is going to limit what level of integration Google Voice can have with the iPhone.  As a Google Voice user and proponent, this is disappointing news.

Read: [TechCrunch]