Vonage announced that Apple has given its blessing to an official Vonage VoIP application to give iPhone users the ability to make voice calls over WiFi, as does the Skype app for iPhone. The app will allow users to use their existing accounts and place calls using their Vonage number from their iPhone. It will give the users better international rates and some additional flexibility.
“Vonage is currently conducting a beta test and general availability will be announced at a later date,” the company said in a statement Wednesday. “This new service, along with the recent launch of the Vonage World unlimited calling plan, continues Vonage’s heritage of using innovative technology to create significant value for its current and future customers.”
This announcement arrives shortly after Apple rejected the official Google Voice app and pulled all of the third-party applications for the service from the App Store. It did take a while for Vonage to get approval, but Apple's reasoning was that Vonage needed to fix a few software issues. Apple have previous approved various other VoIP services (as long as they only work over WiFi and NOT 3G). The approval of Vonage is sure to further confuse developers, and to stir up even more ire in Google Voice fans.
A clear limitation of an iPhone Vonage client, however, would be the users' inability to receive Vonage calls on the handset. Since the iPhone doesn't support applications running in the background, a friend calling your Vonage number would not reach you on your iPhone.
