Vonage iPhone app in second round of testing
Despite an apparent distaste for Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) applications on the popular Apple iPhone, this isn’t stopping companies such as Vonage from trying to get one released through the App Store.
There has been much discussion over the refusal to allow Google to release a Google Voice app to the Apple App Store. AT&T and Apple have both said the other is at fault, and the water has gotten so murky that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) had to step in and start asking questions as to who was really at fault for it. However, with Skype having made it through the approval process, albeit being limited to use over Wi-Fi connections, there is no reason why other VoIP applications shouldn’t give the approval process a chance, and that is exactly what Vonage has done.
According to various sources, Vonage submitted its appication to Apple earlier this week. According to Bloombergs, Natalie Kerris, a spokeswoman for Apple, said that the app had not been approved as of yet due to a technical issue with the programming. Charlie Sahner, a spokesman for Vonage, said the issue was over the labeling of the application, and it has now been corrected and resubmitted.
Vonage has lost 100,000 users over the past year as subscribers opted to switch to digital phone service offered by their local cable companies. On the back of the application news on Aug. 26, Vonage’s stock jumped 36% and traded more than 81 million shares, 63 percent more than an average day. This says a lot for the power of the Apple App Store when the mere mention of releasing an application can effect a stock to this degree. Vonage was actually in danger of being delisted from the New York Stock Exchange as the stock exchange requires shares to sell for a minimum of $1, and Vonage shares had been under that benchmark since Dec. 19, 2008. As of the time of publication of this post, Vonage was off nearly 6 percent from yesterday’s high, but was trading at $2.04.
Both Apple and Vonage seem confident that the application will be released, it is just a question of “when?” at this point.
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