Apple Has Already Approved The Official Google Voice App For iPhone | Hacker News Reader

Apple Has Already Approved The Official Google Voice App For iPhone

techcrunch.com

Frankly, I'm really surprised this took so long. The mechanism by which a phone call is routed/made is a compliment to the iPhone, and hence any direction Apple can take that commodifies the process is good for their core business (making great devices). I'd love to see Google start competing with AT&T on the value they provide to the iPhone.

Other than text messages though, Google really isn't competing with carriers via GV. You still need to have a carrier plan and phone number to send or receive calls from GV on your mobile phone, and you still need to have a data plan from your carrier to send or receive text messages. I love GV, and I have used it exclusively for everything since they re-opened the service, but I still have to pay my carrier for a voice and data plan.

Even if Google decides to implement a VOIP service as part of GV, users will still need to have a carrier data plan to make use of it, and if a lot of people switch to data-only plans to use GV, carriers will simply respond by further increasing the cost of "unlimited" data plans...

Speaking of "carriers" in general, rather than just AT&T with the iPhone:

IIRC, on Verizon my parents paid $30/month extra -- above and beyond the data plan -- for unlimited texting, because some of their business contacts are inveterate texters who won't or can't currently switch to email on their phones.

They are already paying Verizon's top tier prices, including for unlimited data, and then get walloped an extra $360 a year for the privilege of cramming brief messages into the spare room of the network's status/heartbeat messaging.

I mentioned a Voice account (or two), but that was a bit too far afield for them, at the time (and imagine their contacts' confusion over a second number). Nonetheless, saving $30/month seems like a bit of motivation, in general.

Only one thing to say about this...

"Pizza."

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