Google Enters the Brave New World of Wireless with Android, Not the “GPhone”
Google has announced, not the much anticipated and speculated “Google phone” or “GPhone” but instead an open source platform, Android. From the official Google Blog:
Despite all of the very interesting speculation over the last few months, we’re not announcing a Gphone. However, we think what we are announcing — the Open Handset Alliance and Android — is more significant and ambitious than a single phone. In fact, through the joint efforts of the members of the Open Handset Alliance, we hope Android will be the foundation for many new phones and will create an entirely new mobile experience for users, with new applications and new capabilities we can’t imagine today.
Android is the first truly open and comprehensive platform for mobile devices. It includes an operating system, user-interface and applications — all of the software to run a mobile phone, but without the proprietary obstacles that have hindered mobile innovation. We have developed Android in cooperation with the Open Handset Alliance, which consists of more than 30 technology and mobile leaders including Motorola, Qualcomm, HTC and T-Mobile. Through deep partnerships with carriers, device manufacturers, developers, and others, we hope to enable an open ecosystem for the mobile world by creating a standard, open mobile software platform. We think the result will ultimately be a better and faster pace for innovation that will give mobile customers unforeseen applications and capabilities.
Of course the speculation now is only beginning. And, as there is no cellphone yet developed with Android, but as Forbes reports there are some prototypes:
Google likes software, particularly the kind that puts ads on Web pages, making Google rich. The realities of a phone business–running a supply chain, keeping inventory and managing distribution–were never something Google wanted from its phone initiative. But it has built about five prototype phones based on the Open Handset Alliance software kit that it has used to demonstrate what an open-source phone could do–and to woo companies to join its team.
The phone, code-named “Dream” inside Google (nasdaq: GOOG – news – people ), looks somewhat like Apple’s (nasdaq: AAPL – news – people ) iPhone: It is thin, about 3 inches wide and 5 inches long, and features a touch-sensitive, rectangular screen. Unlike the iPhone, the screen is also time-sensitive: Hold down your finger longer, and the area you’re controlling expands. The bottom end of the handset, near the navigational controls, is slightly beveled so it nestles in the palm. The screen also swivels to one side, revealing a full keyboard beneath. (The screen display changes from a vertical portrait mode to a horizontal display when someone uses the keyboard.)
There is a great deal of commentary and discussion of the Google Android platform on GigaOm. Endgadget offered live coverage of the announcement.
Android co-founder, Nick Sears, and other Android developers explain the platform in this brief video.
The Wall Street Journal reports on Google’s solicitation of advertisers. And with that, arise concerns about the privacy of users. Unanswered questions arise, such as how will ad content be determined and delivered?
Google Inc. is trying to shake up the wireless industry by helping to create cheaper phones that can access advanced Internet services — and carry its lucrative advertising. Now that the Internet giant has cemented an alliance with 33 partners, the question is whether they will follow through on its attempt to change the rules of the game.
After months of anticipation, a group including Google and a number of mobile-handset makers, cellular carriers and other technology companies plans to make new software available — free of charge — to power mobile phones that will start hitting the market in the second half of 2008. The move paves the way for mass-market cellphones that will bring consumers’ experience on the mobile Web closer to that of personal computers. And Google is betting that its ad revenue will surge as a result.
Android is a bid to change how the wireless industry operates. Carriers traditionally have decided what applications most consumers see on their cellphones, setting rules and negotiating fees for software developers to gain access. Google has struggled at times in recent years to get its products — including Google Maps, Gmail email and its search engine — onto mobile phones in a way that’s easy for people to use. With Android, software makers can theoretically write applications that run on any user’s phone — and consumers can freely browse the Web.
But until new handsets based on Android come to market, it won’t be clear how far operators have gone to satisfy Google’s desire for open mobile software. Some carriers have said they still want to make sure Android doesn’t allow sensitive user information to 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 such as 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.
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Google won’t make money on Android itself, but the company believes it will create new opportunities for Google to sell ads on mobile phones, something executives have characterized as the company’s biggest business opportunity. Google is betting that easier access to the Internet from mobile phones will lead people to use its services more, as has been the case with Web access on the personal computer. Google’s Mr. Rubin said ads will appear on the phones as they normally do when a user surfs the Web. The company may also sell ads for some developers of applications that run on the phones. (The name of the new platform stems from Google’s 2005 purchase of Android Inc., a Silicon Valley startup co-founded by Mr. Rubin.)
Google said it would likely share revenue from ads with wireless carriers; the carriers then could reduce the cost of handsets or wireless fees for consumers. Google also could make money in other ways, possibly by getting a share of monthly revenue from carriers or selling a rate plan for a package of applications.
And thus the speculation continues….