Reuters will have live updates and photos from Apple's live event at 1 pm ET on Wednesday.

Apple Inc's Phil Schiller, Senior Vice-President of worldwide marketing, speaks about the iPod touch's game playing capabilities.  REUTERS/Robert Galbraith

All photos by Robert Galbraith.

Apple, Google and AT&T all filed their responsesFriday to the FCC’s requestfor more information in the Google Voice app saga. The story line thus far has been trying to determine the reasons behind Apple’s decision to reject the iPhone app.  Some blamed AT&T for the thumbs down, believing that the iPhone’s exclusive U.S. carrier feared the app would provide competition for voice services on the smartphone.

But Apple said AT&T played no role in the rejection. In fact, the iPhone maker said the Google Voice app hasn’t even been rejected.

“Contrary to published reports, Apple has not rejected the Google Voice application, and continues to study it,” Apple said in its response. “The application has not been approved because, as submitted for review, it appears to alter the iPhone’s distinctive user experience by replacing the iPhone’s core mobile telephone functionality and Apple user interface with its own user interface for telephone calls, text messaging and voicemail.”

Google, in its filing with the FCC, chose to keep confidential Apple’s explanation for rejecting — or rather, failing to approve — the app.

Apple also provided some interesting tidbits on the App Store, which is now stuffed with more than 65,000 applications just over a year after its launch. Apple said it has more than 40 full-time trained reviewers, and at least two different reviewers study each app. It said 95% of applications are approved within 14 days of being submitted.

It added: “We receive about 8,500 new applications and updates every week, and roughly 20% of them are not approved as originally submitted. In little more than a year, we have reviewed more than 200,000 applications and updates.”

The US telecom regulator FCC has been looking into why Apple rejected an Internet telephony application from Google for inclusion in its iPhone application store. Responses from Google, Apple and AT&T, the exclusive U.S. iPhone carrier, are due today.

Along with Google Voice’s consumer fans, the outcome of the inquiry will be closely watched by other Internet telephone services such as eBay’s Skype. Apple approved a Skype app for iPhone but consumers can only make Skype calls when they are connected to a short-range wi-fi network and not via the AT&T cellular network.
The head of another U.S. Internet telephony provider Vonage weighed in on the topic in an interview this week. Vonage plans to offer its own mobile communications application later this year.

Marc Lefar previously served as chief marketing officer of Cingular, now AT&T Mobility, where he helped put together the mobile operator’s iPhone deal with Apple, before becoming Vonage Chief Executive last year. Taking his previous experience in the wireless industry into acccount, Lefar said it was unclear to him why the Google Voice application was rejected for iPhone.

“These apps we’re talking about, to me … seem to be reasonable to allow, relative to the range of things that have already been put into the app store,” he said.

“I think its very hard to defend a unique service and to distinguish some services in the communications space (from) others if all they do is use software to be able to provide that service,” he said.

“We’re very interested to see what the FCC comes back with. We think the inquiry is completely appropriate,” he said.
So is Lefar worried Vonage’s app will also face a tough time getting approval?
“It’s not a concern,” he said “We understand what the competitive environment is and we think there’s ample opportunity to deliver software applications that deliver some of our services across a range of devices.”
“We go into this with our eyes wide open.” said Lefar but declined comment on specific devices.

(Reuters Photo of Vonage booth at a trade show)

LONDON, Aug 13 (Reuters) - Once they were warriors battling one another on the digital battlefield. Nowadays, Microsoft and Nokia are worriers, huddling together for comfort.

The world's top phone and software companies need each other to compete with Apple, Google and Blackberry-maker Research in Motion (RIM), whose products increasingly define what users expect from phones and charge premium prices in consequence.

In the market for so-called "smartphones", Deutsche Bank estimates Apple and RIM now take home more than half of all profits, despite producing less than a third of high-end mobile phones. Nokia held a 45 percent share of the smartphone market in June, according to Gartner Inc. (Table 2 in Gartner release)

The news this week that Nokia will feature Microsoft's office software -- features such as Word and Excel -- on phones aimed at business users is symbolic of what is possible rather than significant in itself. It fell short of predictions in the gadget trade press that Nokia might introduce phones running on Microsoft's own Windows Mobile software.

But that doesn't mean their collaboration should be dismissed. There's more to this budding relationship than meets the eye.

First and foremost, Microsoft and Nokia say they are taking on the Blackberry email-phone, a must have among corporate professionals. So far the they haven't done very much, for all the big talk. But they have pledged to make Microsoft Outlook work smoothly on Nokia phones.

This is crucial in overcoming Blackberry's key advantage -- the underlying software that companies rely on to securely manage corporate e-mail.

The opportunity here is that corporate technology managers are no longer content to supply only Blackberry devices but are gearing up to support a wider range of devices and software systems, reflecting shifting user tastes and demands.

Microsoft and Nokia need one another because despite being leaders in their respective fields -- computer software in Microsoft's case and phones for Nokia. But these powers have not translated into dominance in the era of converged devices.

To some extent, they have themselves to blame. The two giants spent the first half of the decade at war with one another over Microsoft's bid to enter the mobile phone business with its Windows Mobile software and Nokia's half-hearted attempts to do the reverse and expand its presence in computer
markets.

Years of legal and technology standards battles resulted in a stalemate. Windows-based phones number only a little over 20 million in a market of billions, and Nokia has made only tentative steps to enter computer tablet or netbook computer markets. Nimbler rivals have exploited these distractions.

Microsoft isn't the only technology giant Nokia is cuddling up to. In June, the Finnish company announced that it would team up with computer chip king Intel Corp on chips for future phones. Nokia was careful this week to underscore that the Intel deal is about future generations of Nokia products while the Microsoft ties are for phones in the here and now.

Whether or not Nokia sells some Windows-based phone models or Nokia eventually introduces a mini-netbook computer running Windows software is largely irrelevant to the central problem these two companies face.

Microsoft and Nokia must create differentiated products that help users do things Apple and Research in Motion cannot do. Otherwise these two giants face marginalization in the era when phones become computers.

You can read some of Eric's recent columns here.

(Photo: Reuters/Vivek Prakash, Singapore)

Few observers expressed much surprise over Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s decision Monday to step down from Apple’s board. Analysts said the writing was on the wall, as Google’s Android smartphone software competes in the same market at Apple’s iPhone, and Google’s forthcoming Chrome operating system prepares to enter a market against Apple’s Mac OS.

Schmidt said earlier this month he expected to chat with Apple about his role on its board, and what with increased regulatory scrutiny about the company’s ties, many say it was only a matter of time.

“It’s the collision course that they’ve been on for a while, I think they’ve managed it well up to until now,” said Todd Dagres, a venture capitalist whose firm Spark Capital funded Twitter. “I think Eric getting off the board may be an indication of sort of the last straw here.”

The ties between the two companies do run deep, he said, noting that current Google director Ann Mather was CFO at Pixar while Apple’s Steve Jobs was CEO. But he said competitive juices among folks at both companies will start to flow as their empires bump into one another and “it affects your performance, your bonus and your market share.”

This is not the first time a CEO has stepped down as a director of another Silicon Valley company against a backdrop of competitive concerns, noted JMP Securities analyst Sam Wilson, who mentioned Carly Fiorina — then CEO of Hewlett-Packard — who left the board of Cisco Systems in 2003.  The two companies partner in some areas but are increasingly competitors in others.

Wilson said technology companies are always looking to branch into new markets, meaning today’s allies are tomorrow’s rivals. “Tech overall isn’t growing that fast, the pie isn’t growing that fast, so everybody is looking at everybody else’s piece of the pie.”

He said Apple’s recent rejection of the Google Voice app for the iPhone should be read as a sign.  “They’re no longer friends. I think when Apple turned off Google Voice it was clear they’re no longer friends.”

Apple has rejected Google’s application to place its  nifty Google Voice phone call and voice mail app on the iPhone, the latest twist in the closely-watched relationship between the Silicon Valley giants.

In a statement, Google said it submitted its App Store application six weeks ago, but that Apple failed to approve it. Apple declined to comment.

In addition, GV Mobile — a third-party Google Voice iPhone app — has been removed from the App Store, accordingto developer Sean Kovacs. He said Apple informed him that his app duplicates iPhone features.

Google Voice was rolled out in March to the applause of many reviewers. Utilizing speech-recognition technology, Google Voice has a number of cool features, allowing users to store transcripts of voicemail messages in their email inbox and find a specific information within a phone message.

It can also be used to make low-priced international calls, and offers a single phone number that can route incoming calls to home, office and cell phones. Given that this might pose a threat to exclusive U.S. iPhone carrier AT&T, some say the telecom giant is behind the rejection. Others are laying the blame elsewhere.

Google prides itself on its unique culture of innovation and product design.

But when it comes to Google products for the iPhone, it’s Apple that calls the shots.

At least that’s how it appeared this week following a surprisingly candid blog post from a Google product manager introducing Latitude for the iPhone - Google’s product that allows people to see the locations of their friends on a map.

Instead of releasing Latitude as an iPhone app, or incorporating the Latitude functionality into the iPhone’s existing Maps application, Google introduced Latitude as a browser-based service that can only be used within the iPhone’s Safari Web browser.

That’s a strange move, since it foregoes the convenience and ease-of-use that have made iPhone’s native apps so popular.

In fact, Google said that it did create a stand-alone Latitude app but pulled the plug on it at Apple’s behest.

“We worked closely with Apple to bring Latitude to the iPhone in a way Apple thought would be best for iPhone users,” wrote Mat Balez, Google mobile team product manager.

“After we developed a Latitude application for the iPhone, Apple requested we release Latitude as a web application in order to avoid confusion with Maps on the iPhone, which uses Google to serve maps tiles,” he wrote.

The decision did not sit well with techies, who blasted the decision on the Google blog.

“This is almost useless and I was sooo looking forward to it,” wrote one commenter about Latitude for the iPhone.

“Is it just me or is Apple acting like the evil Microsoft by all of this tight control and rigidity?” wrote another.

What does Apple have to say about the whole thing? The company did not return calls for comment.

Most people have one phone or handheld device for work, and maybe another one for play. But how about 14?

That’s how many devices Google’s vice president of engineering Vic Gundotra has. They make it “very hard to get through the airport,” he joked.

We asked him and other executives in the mobile advertising industry what devices they use, after about an hour of a panel discussion on where mobile advertising is going at the Fortune Brainstorm: TECH conference.

Gundotra said he had only a few of his 14 devices with him.

“I have an Android, a BlackBerry and an iPhone with me and another device that I can’t talk about,” he said, adding his company wants to make sure that consumers have a good Google experience with any device that they choose. His email and calendar are synced on all devices, but he has pictures only on the Android. “If you call Google Voice, all 14 phones ring,” he joked.

It’s an Apple iPhone and a Blackberry for Omar Hamoui, chief executive of AdMob, one of the largest marketplaces for mobile advertisers. “I carry two because I use them quite differently,” he said. The iPhone is for anything involved with data and applications and the Blackberry, for email and calendar.

Anand Chandrasekher, senior vice president and general manager of Intel Corp’s Ultra Mobility Group, said he uses a notebook, Blackberry for work-related applications and an iPhone for more personal use like Internet browsing.

“I don’t have a phone,” deadpanned Marty Beard, president of Sybase 365, a unit of business software maker Sybase Inc. Beard was the only executive on the panel who used only one device: an iPhone, which he chose for heavy Web usage, its text and multimedia capabilities and to get familiar with applications.

– Laura Isensee also contributed to this post

(Photo: REUTERS/Mike Segar)

Setting aside some relatively impressive Mac sales, Apple’s iPhone was the true star of the company’s earnings drama on Tuesday–though the the device might be a little tough for some folks to to get their hands on in the near term.

Apple said it can’t meet current demand for the iPhone 3GS, which launched last month. The 3GS is available in 18 countries and is being rolled out this summer to another 80-plus countries.

Overall, the company sold 5.2 million iPhones in the June quarter, ahead of many analysts estimates. That total includes sales of the reduced-price $99 iPhone 3G.

Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook said “the iPhone 3GS is constrained in virtually every country we’re shipping it in. So the demand has been very robust.”

He later added: “I don’t want to predict today when supply and demand will balance. I know that it will not balance in the short-term. And I don’t want to give a prediction because as you can guess, it’s very difficult to gauge the demand without having the supply there to find out what it is… In terms of affecting the country roll out, I believe the vast majority of the countries that we are selling the 3G in will be selling a 3GS by the end of the fiscal quarter. So it may move the date by a few weeks here or there.”

Cook also delivered some interesting factoids on iPhone adoption by large corporations. He said close to 20 percent of the Fortune 100 have bought at least 10,000 units or more.

But Cook stuck to the company line on AT&T, the exclusive iPhone carrier in the U.S. (”I think it’s an excellent relationship and we’re very happy with it”), and provided no new details on when the iPhone might launch in China.

 Some analysts worry that T-Mobile USA may have missed a trick by opting for a new Android device, myTouch 3G, which is mostly the same as HTC’s first one, the G, except for its slimmer shape and lack of a physical keyboard.

According to T-Mobile USA Chief Technology Officer Cole Brodman, the No. 4 U.S. carrier currently has no plans to sell Hero, another HTC phone that runs Google’s Android but has an updated user interface that looks similar in some ways to Palm Pre.

From today until July 28, T-Mobile USA customers can order the myTouch online with the potential to have their phones deliverd before its national launch stores on Aug. 5. Brodman says myTouch, with its nifty travel case, personalizable covers and T-Mobile recommendations for hot applictions, will appeal to a broader audience than G1. The idea is that myTouch’s sleek shape and Android’s straightforward user interface will encourage T-Mobile customers who had never bought a smartphone before to now consider this one.

“We think it’s a great opportunity to bring them into the smartphone space with a portable easy to use device,” said Brodman in an interview at a myTouch demo event. “It felt like the right choice for the target we were going after.”

Brodman also promised that T-Mobile USA will have more Android devices later this year. He would not give any hints about the vendor but said integration of mobile social networking could be a key feature in a future Android phone. 

But Current Analysis analyst Avi Greengart was not convinced by myTouch and questioned why T-Mobile chose it over Hero, which like Pre cleverly integrates social network services such as Facebook and it can operate multiple applications at the same time. “That’s just T-Mobile being shortsighted,” said Greengart who also worried about the myTouch’s $199 pricetag, which has to compete with a $99 iPhone that has twice as much memory. “You’re paying $50 to lose the keyboard,” said Greengart comparing it to the G1, which has a physcial keyboard and a $149 price tag. Brodman argues that T-Mobile USA customers would be able to make up the difference in a matter of months as its service fees are cheaper than those of AT&T, the exclusive U.S. carrier for iPhone. 

NPD analyst Ross Rubin says myTouch faces tougher competition but could still do better than G1, for which T-Mobile USA has more than a million customers. “This is a sleeker device. It will likely do better than the G1 did if T-Mobile continues to build out its 3G network,” he said. 

Another analyst Michael Gartenberg of market research firm Interpret was less than impressed by myTouch. ”It’s very evolutionary. In an era of new devices offering new functionality and new features this doesn’t feel particularly exciting,” he said.

As to the device’s appearance ahead of Hero, which a rival U.S. carrier is expected to sell, Gartenberg had this to say: ”It’s hard to introduce a product when your supplier has already announced the next update … It would have had a lot more excitement around it six months ago. It almost feels very dated.”

HTC has not said which U.S. carrier plans to sell Hero in the fall but Gartenberg sees AT&T as the most likely contender, since HTC has already built a version for Europe’s Orange based on the GSM wireless technology that AT&T supports. 

Sprint often sells HTC phones but since it already has an exclusive deal to sell Palm’s high-profile Pre phone until year-end at least, Gartenberg sees it as a less likely candidate than AT&T. ”Do they (Sprint) really want to take on another big device that requires a lot of marketing?” he said.

(Photo from T-Mobile USA: myTouch white black and merlot versions, T-Mobile CMO Denny Marie Post and CTO Cole Brodman at Wednesday’s event)