Say it ain’t so, Apple. TechCrunch is reporting that you’ve rejected the official Google Voice app from the iPhone App Store, along with all Google voice-related applications. It seems you’re blocking Google Voice even though these apps have already been approved for the BlackBerry and Android phones, and even though you’ve enjoyed a chummy relationship with Google in the past, with Google CEO Eric Schmidt even sitting on your board.

This rejection is the most recent in a line of dubious decisions made by Apple – most likely with AT&T breathing down their necks – to block apps that “duplicate” existing functions on the iPhone.

Those apps include Skype and SlingPlayer Mobile, both of which are blocked from using AT&T’s 3G data network for their services.

There’s no proof yet that AT&T is behind Apple’s decision, but it seems clear that this decision is all about the network.

Chris Rawson at The Unofficial Apple Weblog summarizes it best:

What we have is a very clear and disturbing pattern. Applications that provide innovative solutions to users, but which fall outside the bounds of what a traditionally-minded telecommunications company like AT&T considers acceptable, are being either hobbled by arbitrary restrictions like Skype and Sling or blasted out of existence like Google Voice.

Listen up, Apple: Blocking any Google Voice-related app is playing with fire. Google Voice is an enormously popular and beloved service that an army of geeks are willing to defend. The blowback from this decision could overshadow whatever you hoped to gain from the AT&T deal.

Geek alert: Apple and AT&T’s behavior reminds me of the moment in Star Wars when Darth Vader tells Lando Calrissian he’s taking Han Solo away. “Perhaps you think you’re being treated unfairly?” asks Vader. “This deal is getting worse all the time,” Lando says to himself.