Google announcing its big play in the wireless market Monday

[John Kennedy]

Not an outright Google phone (yet), but a full blown mobile operating system that will install on select phones across various carriers (T-Mobile and Sprint have been named initially), and will be a free install. Think of it as another option to Windows Mobile, Symbian, Blackberry OS and Palm OS.

Keep in mind the announcement is coming Monday, but Google-powered phones may not hit the shelves until early to mid 2008. The software alone will probably be available earlier than that via beta.

http://blogs.wsj.com/biztech/2007/11...-plans-monday/

[Snowrider]

Not an outright Google phone (yet), but a full blown mobile operating system that will install on select phones across various carriers (T-Mobile and Sprint have been named initially), and will be a free install. Think of it as another option to Windows Mobile, Symbian, Blackberry OS and Palm OS.

Keep in mind the announcement is coming Monday, but Google-powered phones may not hit the shelves until early to mid 2008. The software alone will probably be available earlier than that via beta.

http://blogs.wsj.com/biztech/2007/11...-plans-monday/

I love this company. I really do.

[John Kennedy]

Here's the announcement:

By AMOL SHARMA and KEVIN J. DELANEY
November 5, 2007 11:24 a.m.

Google Inc. announced today an ambitious alliance with 33 handset makers, wireless carriers and other technology companies to create low-cost mobile phones based on "open" technology standards.

The Mountain View, Calif., Internet company said the new cellphone technology it is creating with its partners – which it calls Android – would enable faster development of innovative cellphone features. The platform includes several layers of software for phones, including an operating system, a user interface and applications. Among the handset makers that signed on to Google's initiative were Taiwan's HTC Corp., Samsung Electronics Co. and Motorola Inc. Operator partners include Deutsche Telekom AG's T-Mobile, Sprint Nextel Corp., and Japan's NTT DoCoMo Inc.

The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Google planned to announce its plans for open mobile phones today. For months, the wireless industry has been abuzz with speculation about Google's mobile initiatives. (See earlier story.¹)

The company's announcement could prove a short-term disappointment for consumers who were eager for more details – and photos – of what some have termed the "Google Phone" or the "Gphone." The company didn't announce the creation of any single Google-powered device or show what one would look like. Indeed, it said it would take until the second half of 2008 before phones based on the Android platform come to market.

The initiative is a sign of Google's frustration with the way the cellphone industry works. Carriers and handset makers control what services customers can access and use operating systems that sometimes restrict software developers from accessing information like a user's Global Positioning System location, contact list or Web browsing. Google and its partners hope to spur greater innovation in areas like location-aware services and social networking, and to make cellphones more like the Web. The companies said they would release a set of tools for developers next week.

"This partnership will help unleash the potential of mobile technology for billions of users around the world," said Google Chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt in a statement. "A fresh approach to fostering innovation in the mobile industry will help shape a new computing environment that will change the way people access and share information in the future."
The name of the new alliance stems from Google's 2005 purchase of Android Inc., a Silicon Valley startup co-founded by Andy Rubin. Mr. Rubin has been central to Google's plans of building software for mobile devices.

At the core, Google is betting that easier consumer access to Internet services from their mobile phones will lead consumers to use its services more—which has been the case with Web access on the personal computer. The open model echoes Google's announcement last week of OpenSocial technical specifications to be used by social networking sites and software developers creating applications for them.
MEMBERS OF GOOGLE'S ALLIANCE

Aplix, Ascender Corp., Audience, Broadcom Corp., China Mobile, eBay Inc., Esmertec, HTC Corp., Intel Corp., KDDI, Living Image, LG, Marvell Technology, Motorola Inc., NMS Communications, Noser, NTT DoCoMo, Nuance Communications Inc., Nvidia Corp., PacketVideo, Qualcomm Inc., Samsung Electronics, SiRF, SkyPop, SONiVOX, Sprint Nextel, Synaptics, TAT - The Astonishing Tribe, Telecom Italia, Telefónica SA, Texas Instruments, T-Mobile and Wind River Systems Inc.

Google's strategy of cooperating with multiple handset maker and operator partners to develop what Mr. Schmidt said could be "thousands of different phone models" differs starkly from that of Apple Inc., which developed a single iconic mobile device – the iPhone – that consumers now associate with its brand.

Google's long-term impact in the wireless industry may not be on the design of phones, but the economics of how they are sold to consumers. If the company, as expected, gives away its new mobile software to handset makers for free or at least a steep discount to existing operating system providers, the savings could be passed on to consumers. In addition, people familiar with Google's plans say the company one day hopes to partly subsidize the cost of phones by showing targeted ads to users. Google has created an ad-brokering system for mobile phones that builds on its advertising platform for the Web.

The prospect of richer cellphone features and lower-cost phones has enticed several carriers to sign on to Google's initiative. Carriers will be able to customize the "open source" Android software as they see fit. The Android technology would be a competitor to cellphone operating systems like Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Mobile and Symbian.

But until any new handsets based on Android come to market, it will be unclear just how far operators have gone to satisfy Google's desire for open mobile software. Carriers will still want to make sure sensitive user information doesn't fall into the hands of rogue third-party developers, leading to invasions of privacy and security risks. Those issues partly explain why large U.S. operators like AT&T Inc. and Verizon Wireless, a joint venture of Verizon Communications Inc. and Vodafone Group PLC, have yet to sign on to Google's initiative.

Some of Google's partners are surprising given that the alliance is aimed at creating "open" standards: Qualcomm Inc., for example, tightly controls its "Brew" mobile platform, which runs games and other applications on phones for carriers such as Verizon. And many handset makers chafe at the royalties they pay Qualcomm because of its patents on basic cellphone chips.

Motorola's participation in the Google project is striking, given how the company was burned by Apple when the iPhone launched. Motorola worked with Apple to release a music phone called the ROKR in 2005, but the iPhone dramatically upstaged that device. "Motorola plans to leverage the Android platform to enable seamless, connected services and rich consumer experiences in future Motorola products," said Motorola Chairman and CEO Ed Zander in the statement.

Write to Amol Sharma at amol.sharma@wsj.com² and Kevin J. Delaney at kevin.delaney@wsj.com³

URL for this article: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119427874851482602.html