Apple blocks Google Voice from iPhone

 Or (as those involved suspect) AT&T, which distributes the iPhone in the US, has insisted Apple do so.

Indeed so far the Google Voice (see - Be very afraid: Google Voice has Landed) features are only available to US users and at this point only by invitation, but while Google has developed an official client for Blackberry and for its own Android environments, it has been banned from iPhone by Apple as have a range of other voice-oriented apps which Apple says duplicate features already available on the phone and therefore cannot pass.

Meanwhile, music streaming site, Spotify, is playing it clever with Apple. (see Spotify goes mobile with Android: will an iPhone version follow?) That company has been gearing up to get its client accepted on the iPhone (arguably the most influential smartphone platform for leading-edge applications) and is playing up the process for all it's worth.

Apple, of course, is invested in a different music marketing approach with itsiTunes site.  Apple is music as files, downloadable and own-able.  Spotify is music as a cloud-based list, streamed down as and when the owner wants to listen. Spotify uses a mix of subscription and advertising to fund the venture.

Spotify works particularly well on tethered computers but what happens, potential users always ask, when I want to go mobile?  Files I can load on myiPod, Spotify I can't.

Which is where the mobile version of Spotify comes in. Users will be able to stream the music down onto their smartphones because Spotify is working on both Android and iPhone versions. Even better, the music can continue when mobile reception gives out because there is a caching facility. So Spotify in this guise takes iTunes full-on by storing streamed lists as well as playing them.

Not surprisingly, given Apple's track record, Spotify is slightly worried that it will disallow its application. The best approach is, therefore, to be as nice as possible to Apple in the run-up, while at the same time building up the "will-they, won't they" suspense and coverage. SoSpotify has upped the stakes by putting a demo of the application on YouTube and generally bigging up its arrival.

If Apple allows the app, Spotify wins.  If Apple bans the app, Spotify loses the battle but wins the PR war (and drives users to its Android app). It's all good fun.