

Apple Has Already Approved The Official Google Voice App For iPhone - davidedicillo
http://techcrunch.com/2010/09/27/google-voice-iphone-3/

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andreyf
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.

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nuclear_eclipse
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...

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pasbesoin
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.

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9ec4c12949a4f3
Only one thing to say about this...

"Pizza."

