John Gruber:
And, to play devil’s advocate for a moment, I’m not sure the decision is entirely unreasonable. Don’t think about it in terms of Apple’s relationship with its carrier partners, but instead think about it in terms of Apple’s competition with Google. Google Voice is a mobile phone service provided by the maker of one of the biggest competitors to the iPhone OS. What if Google Voice were instead Microsoft Voice? And what if Windows Mobile were as modern and competitive as Android? Would you be as surprised then that Apple is discouraging iPhone owners from using the service? Just saying.
I see why everyone is piling on AT&T—they’re a mediocre carrier with a lot of problems—but, really, how much worse is it than others? Even Verizon has difficulties. Putting all the blame on AT&T for the iPhone’s troubles, something that Techcrunch has been howling about for the last few weeks, is blind to Apple’s other concerns: all their cellular partners, not just AT&T, rely on a business model that is threatened by products like Google Voice.