By now most everyone is aware that Apple pulled two apps that make using the iPhone with Google Voice awesome. GV Dialer and VoiceCentral are no more. (If you already own them they WILL continue to work… make a backup of your copy!)

It is the latest round of idiocy in the on-going attempt by Apple and AT&T to maximize profits by keeping competition as far away as possible. It will, ultimately, blow up in both their faces.

Very little love is lost for AT&T by most users. The reception is often subpar, dropped calls are the norm and if you have ever dealt with their customer service you know the definition of frustration first-hand. Their absence from the list of carriers making MMS and tethering available with iPhone 3.0 did little to advance the public perception of them and their insistence on neutering apps like SlingPlayer left a bad taste in many of our mouths. Since then they just keep pushing customers further and further away. For many of us staying with them comes down to just two words- “iPhone” and “contract”.

Apple is a different story. Many of use who use Apple’s products love Apple. We don’t think ourselves “fanboys/girls” for nothing. Yet each one of these Big Brother-ish moves pushes us further and further away. (Who would ever have thought I would be looking to see what Android handsets are coming this year?!?!)

It isn’t just that Apple keeps applying their veto power on apps in a seemingly random way. They also have the gall to lie about the reason. Telling GV Mobile’s developer that the app was pulled because it replicated functionality of the iPhone’s core functionality is a lie… and not a good one at that. At least they could have enough respect for us to come clear with something like “We have pulled the app because it makes using AT&T’s sms service extraneous and we currently are in bed with the devil have a contract with them in which we promise not to allow such things. As soon as exclusivity is over things will change.”

But it is worse than that. The backlash doesn’t just involve the end-user. Think about it… what developer is going to spend time and money developing an app that Apple will approve one day and pull the next? Sure, the “developers” (if you can call them that) of fart apps and 5500 sound apps will still make apps but serious, high quality apps?? wouldn’t a developer be wise to put their time and energy into a platform that is a bit more open like… say… Android??

This is not going to play well in the long-term but, then again, this country has long been about short-term gain rather than long-term strategy.

It is funny that, as TUAW put it,

…who else thinks it’s ironic that a company started by a couple of guys who spent lots of time phone phreaking in a garage in the 1970s now kowtows to AT&T and kills apps that help people make cheaper calls?

Ironic?? More like sad…