On the outside, Apple's decision to reject Google Voice seems rather nonsensical. It provoked the FCC's ire, angered thousands of customers, and made Apple look just as stodgy and backwards as AT&T. It doesn't make any sense...unless Apple wants Voice out of the way so they won't have competition when they release a similar app.

Andrew Garcia at eWeek.com certainly thinks so. And he's put together a compelling argument to try and prove it. He points out that Voice was rejected by Apple under the “conflicts with existing services” justification. While there are currently no services in the App Store similar to Voice, that doesn't necessarily mean anything.

After all, Apple nixed the Podcaster application for that same reason, even though they didn't have a podcast app at the time. A few months later, Apple released a podcast downloading tool and, voila, the reason for Podcaster's refusal was clear.

So it's entirely possible that Apple put the kibosh on Voice because they have a similar program in development. Normally waiting for an innovation and than ripping it off is more Microsoft's forte, but Apple has proven time and time again that they are willing to learn from their old rival. Just look at how good they've gotten at eliminating competition from within their own growing domain.