While I’m not trying to be snarky, I did have a tongue-in-cheek reaction to this news. As an iPhone owner, advocate, and usually, ally – I have to admit to finding my iPhone conviction wavering as I watch Apple reject one golden opportunity to join the collaborative world after another.

Their latest bungle was the rejection of the Google Voice app., a move that, to be fair, may also be blamed on AT&T (while AT&T has no official role in Apple’s decisions, there is talk that they were the reason for Apple’s move).

What does Apple/AT&T have to be afraid of? Google Voice offers free calls in the US, free SMS messages, useful features such as voicemail transcripts, phone routing, and your choice of notification methods among a list of others. I have one of the beta accounts, but lacking a way to connect it to my iPhone, I’m missing out on the greatest feature it offers – the potential to radically simplify my work/home connection.

Apple needs to separate its phone from its carrier. How about letting Verizon or T-Mobile into the game? Then we could be sure it really was Apple’s decision to block Google Voice. Granted, I’m not unaware that Apple and AT&T are in business to make money and allowing applications to offer similar services for free might seem counter-intuitive.

Consider this, though – the wold is continuing to become more and more connected. With our increasing reliance on on smart phones and PDAs to get our work done and our lives ordered, the companies who are hiding behind scale-me-not walls will be left in the virtual dust.

Now that the FCC is investigating Apple’s decision to reject the Google Voice app, it’s possible that a drawbridge will be forced down anyways – regardless of AT&T’s “unofficial” preferences. What do you think? Did Apple do the right thing?