Of course, it’s unrealistic to expect a major corporation to welcome applications that could rival their own with open arms. But Apple’s recent decision to reject the Google Voice iPhone app displays an ugly tendency by Apple to block anything that threatens its position. The poor excuse used by Apple was it already offers functionality available on the iPhone. This particular decision now hangs a big question mark over whether Spotify will be accepted by the Apple iPhone store as I questioned last week. A decision to reject that too would symbolize yet another unacceptable blow by Apple to a superbly innovative application that could provide the blueprint for music distribution in the digital age.

To be fair to Apple, the acceptance or rejection of Spotify for iPhone will be a much greater indicator of its true attitude towards innovation than the The FCC in America have stepped-in to investigate that particular case because it’s been suggested that it may actually be mobile network AT&T (who distribute iPhones in the USA) that put pressure on Apple to reject it, based on the fact that they obviously don’t want people using their iPhones to make calls and send texts for free. Spotify on the other hand is a direct competitor to Apple’s own iTunes and the decision to reject or accept it will be Apple’s alone.

However, as Jon pointed out earlier this year, censorship of applications is nothing new to Apple. He highlighted the increasing lack of credibility they suffered when they initially rejected an app which linked to “offensive” song lyrics and an e-book reader that, shock-horror, would allow you to read a version of the Karmasutra translated from the 1800’s. Albeit, these were widely interpreted as a knee-jerk reaction to Apple’s decision to withdraw the tasteless Baby Shaker application.

Meanwhile an indication of Apple’s “bullying” business tactics when it comes to hardware were illustrated by its recent decision to silence exploding iPod victims with gag orders. One particular British iPod owner, who heard a hissing sound from his daughter’s increasingly hot iPod, threw it into the garden to see it explode 10 feet into the air. Although he only requested a refund, he was demanded to sign a gagging order that would allow Apple to take legal action against him if he or his family ever revealed the terms of the settlement being offered.

The bigger question here is what gives Apple the right to dictate what can and can’t be installed on an a piece of hardware once someone has shelled-out the cash for it? Not even Microsoft – the embodiment of the monopolistic business practices in software – would even go so far as to dictate what can and can’t be installed on a Windows Mobile device for example. The evidence is mounting – Apple has it’s eye on the crown and it won’t let the spirit of innovation that has brought it so far stand in its way.

Spotify is serious search for Spotify on Mac on the Apple downloads website and no results were found although I’m not sure how much can be read into this.

A promotional video launched by Spotify shows that users will also be able to listen to music offline by downloading playlists onto their iPhone. This is great news for those who live in areas where network coverage is poor. However, the bad news is that initially, it’s only going to be available to premium users but this could finally be the driver that Spotify has been looking for to encourage users to convert from the free ad-supported version.

The likelihood is that Apple will approve the app. After all, Spotify is growing hugely and its success will only drive iPhone sales even further and these should offset any losses iTunes makes. And by blocking it from the store, it’s only going to make iPhone users want it more and no doubt, eventually someone would create a hack for it anyway.

One other strange thing worth noting about this news is that Spotify mobile was first demoed on Android and yet it’s being released on iPhone first. Depending on the success of the iPhone version, an Android release will surely follow shortly. US users will have to wait the longest unfortunately – Spotify hasn’t even launched there yet and isn’t expected to until the end of this year.