Imagine creating a quasi me too app that does the same thing in parts as Google Voice. You then realize that the iPhone is an amazing device that more and more small business types are using. They want a second number, and some functionality that AT&T doesn't offer. So they create a kick butt app called Line2, do some testing, get some kudos and voila, into the app store for approval. And that day never comes.
That's what happened so far with Line2 as TechCrunch and others have pointed out.
First off, Peter Sison, is someone I know from his Teleo days. Occasionally we drink wine together at DEMO events as his background in tech dates back to the Virtual Vineyards era and we have some mutual friends. So to be transparent, I'll put that fact on the table. But the number of companies I've come across that want to be "GrandCentral" all over again is not what Line2 was about. It it a way to make communications easier, much like former client Jeff Black wanted to do with TalkPlus.
What we're seeing unfortunately, with the Apple approach to apps now is that the idea of "Think Different" seems to have gone the way of Steve Job's liver. It's almost like what was transplanted was another "organ" and Apple has lost what they embody. When an app comes along that's "me too" or "me also" they have a right to get in the way. But when the functionality and richness is all about "me different" they need to get out of the way.
Both GoogleVoice and Line2 live in the world of "me different" not because they are so different than what the mobile operator offers, but because the mobile operator could have offered something like them and didn't. And that's the Think Different aspect of each application.
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