AT&T is going to be making video and VOIP apps for iPhone?

Yes!  According to Reuters.  Will it suck?  Yes, according to precedent.  They are also going to be making…wait for it…a remote control application as well.

Yes, the iPhone already has some pretty good video and VoIP applications – in fact the only thing holding them back from being better is…um AT&T…  AT&T currently only allows VoIP applications to work on WiFi.  Video on Youtube is compressed over AT&T’s network.  But by the end of the year, all of this will change:

At an event on Monday to showcase some recently developed technologies that are not yet being marketed, AT&T emphasized that in the future, consumers should be able to use their phones, computer and television in more interesting ways.

"We’re looking at the whole landscape, of what people use, and what’s out there in the home," said AT&T Chief Technology Officer John Donovan, adding that some of the services may be launched by the end of the year.

Amazing. 

Imagine what you could do if you weren’t being blocked by AT&T (or by Apple’s App Store requirements).  You could do a Fring type of application with visual voicemail.  Or a Slingbox application.  All tied to AT&T at premium prices WITH lock in. You could get things like:

For example, consumers will be able to listen to their voice mails on their screens, and download shows from their digital video recorders onto their iPhones.

They also will be able to use their iPhones to navigate channels like a normal remote control, and for entertainment purposes like virtually hurling tomatoes at the TV screen using iPhone applications.

We hope Apple got something good out of this whole deal…consumers certainly aren’t.