Is Apple’s Attitude Blocking Google Latitude?

It’s a question on the minds of a number of iPhone owners — why is Apple asking Google to keep Latitude as a web application? Even this recent article put out by TechCrunch has left a lot to speculation on the matter.

While the functionality of Latitude can be provided well enough over a mobile browser, it does seem sort of silly that we can not simply enjoy it in a basic app format!

The official stance “appears” to be this is being offered up this way so we are not to get Latitude confused with the included iPhone Maps application. And to a degree, that is fine. But considering how many similar applications already exist in the app store already, I hardly see the point here.