Is Apple giving Opera for iPhone the Google Voice treatment?

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When Opera Software submitted their browser to the App Store, there was a flurry of blog posts and speculation as to whether it would be approved or rejected.

Fifteen days have passed since then, with neither approval nor rejection being announced.

Granted, Apple has been extremely busy with the launch of the iPad. However, we have heard of developers getting applications approved in a matter of hours. If Apple has amped up enough reviewers to make sure that iPad and other applications are moving through the approval process swiftly, why has Opera languished?

I don’t have any insider knowledge on how applications get reviewed, but I keep imagining a huge building full of cubicles with reviewers hunched over computers. Each time “Opera” pops up on the review screen, the reviewer presses “Return To Queue” because none of them want to be the one who either rejects it or approves it.

Perhaps Opera has been stuck in the same holding pattern that Google Voice has been in for the past 7 and a half months. If Apple has actually rejected the Google Voice app, then Google has kept quiet about it. That’s entirely possible, although I’m not sure why they would. They had no problem making it clear that Apple required them to rewrite Google Latitude as a Web app. Perhaps they don’t want to do anything to strain their working relationship with Apple, which is reportedly very tense in some areas.

TUAWIs Apple giving Opera for iPhone the Google Voice treatment? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 08 Apr 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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