Google Phone In Spring 2008?

Google, apparently has taken substantial amount of floor space at the upcoming Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona, Spain, leading some to speculate that the company might actually be ready to launch its Android based phones

While there is certainly an outside chance of the Google Phone launch, the more realistic and plausible scenario will be Google showing off a few prototype handsets. HTC, is the only handset maker that has publicly said that a device will be available in late 2008.

So why the big presence in Barcelona? Well Google has to win the hearts and minds of the mobile world, find partners and show the seriousness of its mobile efforts.

Via GigaOm

The 1st Google Android Phone video, by Sergey Brin founder

The official and original version of the Google Android Phone, presented by Google founder, Sergey Brin



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5 Open Questions About the Google Phone aka Android

OK, so the Google Phone is not really a phone, but instead a software stack that allows people to do cool things such as build applications and power devices that have never before been imagined. Yes, it also cleans dorm rooms and finds dates. Following the press conference call, however, here are five points about Android that remain… unclear.

1. Google (GOOG) says it’s open source, letting you download it and do whatever — except that carriers can create their own locked-down versions of the software with Android. That doesn’t seem very open to me.
2. Google says it is happy to share revenues from advertising with the carriers. Which is good news for the carriers, but if you are a Google shareholder, you want to know how much is going to be kicked back to the carriers, and if this will have a material impact on Google’s financials.
3. The first Android device won’t hit the market till the second half of 2008, and that, too, from one handset maker, HTC. Now as a developer, why would you opt for this platform when you have other options? (Apparently the browser inside the device will support desktop browser-compatible apps, which is a good thing.)
4. None of the handset partners are betting the farm on Android, but are instead hedging their bets. HTC will continue to do Windows Mobile (MSFT), an OS that makes them a lot of money. (A little arm-twisting from Redmond can go a long way). Motorola (MOT), on the other hand, is a founding member of LiMo Foundation, a rival group that has the backing of carriers looking to Linux Mobile as an OS option. So which effort are they going to put their resources towards?
5. With the exception of admitting that it is Linux-based and can work with Qwerty, non-Qwerty and different types of screen sizes, no real details are available on the tech specs of Android. For that we’ll have to wait. Andy Rubin did point out that it will need a 200-MHz ARM processor at the very least, so for some time it is going to be a smartphone-focused OS environment.

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First Googlephone App Finds You Late Night Beer, Etc (Screenshots)

Remember WhatsOpen.com, the stealth search startup that piqued Google cofounder Sergey Brin's interest last month? Brin was so intrigued he told the founders to keep the company hush-hush. Now, however, a source has leaked screenshots of WhatsOpen's secret project. The company has a Web application which shows users nearby stores and their operating hours -- "what's open." But I'm told by a source that WhatsOpen has also written the first wireless app for Google's new Android operating system. (You may know Android better as the software behind the still-mythical Googlephone.) Demo screenshots after the jump.

Exclusive screenshots of first Googlephone app:



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LiMo (Linux for Mobiles) is Ready to Go Prime Time

Now that the Google Phone platform has been unveiled, one thing is abundantly clear: Happy days are around the corner for Mobile Linux.

As we have already reported, a special version of the Linux operating system forms the underpinning of Google Mobile OS, which will run the Google (GOOG) devices expected to hit the market sometime next year. That isn’t the only Mobile Linux OS flavor, however; over the next few months a cornucopia of devices powered by Mobile Linux are going to come to market.

ABI Research predicts that Mobile Linux will be the fastest growing smartphone OS over the next five years and that Linux-based smartphones will account for about 31 percent of such devices by 2012. Smartphone shipments during this period are expected to total 331 million, according to the market research firm. The impetus for such rosy forecasts for Mobile Linux comes from the carriers, who are looking to standardize on three platforms: Symbian, Windows Mobile and Mobile Linux.

Who’s Afraid Of Apple & Google? Not Symbian

We have been following the Mobile Linux market closely, writing about Motorola’s (MOT) efforts in China, OpenMoko, andTrolltech and its Qtopia platform. In a similar vein, we believe the Mobile Linux efforts of the LiMo Foundation will provide a major boost to the fledgling mobile operating system.

LiMo is an independent, not-for-profit entity formed back in January by Motorola, NEC, NTT DoCoMo (DCM), Panasonic Mobile Communications, Samsung Electronics and Vodafone (VOD). LiMo is developing a Linux-based software platform for mobile devices that has the blessing of two large carriers — Vodafone and NTT DoCoMo — and top-tier mobile handset makers such as Motorola, Samsung, LG, as well as several Japanese manufacturers. Motorola and Samsung kicked off the project by contributing to it their Mobile Linux-related intellectual property.

“We expect the first LiMo handset to come to the market in the first quarter of 2008, perhaps sooner,” Morgan Gillis, the head of LiMo, told me in a casual conversation last week. When I argued that the previous consortium efforts in the mobile industry haven’t been that successful, Gillis pointed out that the platform is not a technical standard, but rather a common OS platform that is being foisted upon the handset makers by carriers. “The value proposition here is that if you are a handset maker, then you get an entire software stack, and it meets the specs of major operators,” he said.

Vodafone, one of the largest mobile phone companies in the world, is pushing particularly hard for standardization, primarily because the company is interested in deploying applications quickly without having to test them on different handsets, a slow and laborious process. SK Telecom and Orange are also looking to follow the same strategy. The standardized platform strategy was first used by NTT DoCoMo in 2002, and it allowed the Japanese giant to roll out apps in a precise manner at a rapid clip.

Handset makers themselves are interested in taking the cost of maintaining different operating systems out of the equation. The reason, Gillis explained, is Apple (AAPL) iPhone. “There is general recognition that the value is now in the user experience, not the OS. Apple has demonstrated that with its device,” he said. “Handset makers now have to invest in the UI, not the underlying technology.”

Google, with its smartphone, will further change the user experience — and that is the point. Google’s mobile efforts are focused on interjecting itself between the carrier and the cell phone user and making money off mobile advertising. This model puts the search giant in conflict with the carriers, who are giving mobile advertising and other mobile services lustful glances. LiMo-based phones could help carriers at the expense of the Google Phone, but all that jockeying will come later. Meanwhile, let’s sit back and watch Mobile Linux have its day in the sun.

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Where's my Gphone?

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.

We see Android as an important part of our strategy of furthering Google's goal of providing access to information to users wherever they are. We recognize that many among the multitude of mobile users around the world do not and may never have an Android-based phone. Our goals must be independent of device or even platform. For this reason, Android will complement, but not replace, our longstanding mobile strategy of developing useful and compelling mobile services and driving adoption of these products through partnerships with handset manufacturers and mobile operators around the world.

It's important to recognize that the Open Handset Alliance and Android have the potential to be major changes from the status quo -- one which will take patience and much investment by the various players before you'll see the first benefits. But we feel the potential gains for mobile customers around the world are worth the effort. If you’re a developer and this approach sounds exciting, give us a week or so and we’ll have an SDK available. If you’re a mobile user, you’ll have to wait a little longer, but some of our partners are targeting the second half of 2008 to ship phones based on the Android platform. And if you already have a phone you know and love, check out mobile.google.com and make sure you have Google Maps for mobile, Gmail and our other great applications on your phone. We'll continue to make these services better and add plenty of exciting new features, applications and services, too.

What would your phone do?



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Google phone plans to be announced Monday

The long-awaited announcement of Google's phone plans will occur earlier than expected, and not in the form previously laid out, says the Wall Street Journal. While it had been suggested that an announcement would come November 13th at the earliest, the Journal's sources say that it will mostly likely happen Monday, November 5th, and with different carriers. T-Mobile is still involved, but the other main party is said to be Sprint. Foreign carriers may be included, but have not been mentioned.

Google is again said to be working with cellular networks and phone makers to promote an "open" application platform, courting companies such as HTC, LG, Samsung and Sony Ericsson. With T-Mobile Google is claimed to be going even further, cooperating directly on building phones using its software. When the efforts of any of these collaborations might bear fruit remains unknown, but Journal proposes that the earliest date for sale of a Google-ready phone would be mid-2008.

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The Google Phone: The Story So Far and What's Next

The Wall Street Journal has been reporting on Google’s mobile phone efforts and how it is beginning to draw some interest from carriers, especially in the United States. Sprint (S) and Verizon (VZ) are in talks with Google (GOOG), according to the Journal, and an announcement by the company is expected sometime in November. Here is what I have been able to gather from my sources:

* An announcement will likely be made Nov. 13th or Nov. 18th.
* Handset makers will use a Google Mobile OS platform.
* Google Mobile OS uses a highly optimized Mobile Linux; developers will be able to use a Java Development Kit. Google is said to have developed a highly optimized Java running on top of the OS. (Read our previous post, Five Facts about Google Phone.)
* Most major handset makers, with the exception of Nokia (NOK), have devices with Google Mobile OS under development; Samsung and Motorola (MOT) are being linked to it as well. (as are HTC and LG Electronics, according to the Journal.)
* The operators who are likely to be part of the big announcement will be T-Mobile’s USA division and Bharti Airtel, one of India’s largest cellular carriers.

The increased interest on the part of mobile carriers is summed up best by Hamid Akhavan, CEO of T-Mobile International and CTO of Deutsche Telecom (DT). In a chat with Russell Reynolds Associates he said:

These companies have recognized that it is not an easy game to penetrate the wireless market without the help of the operators, which has led to collaborative relationships…The biggest challenge is to adapt our market perspective and business model to one based on partnerships, content and applications. Historically, wireless carriers had a relatively simple business model — end-to-end voice service — with correspondingly simple billing. That is no longer the case.

Carriers are grappling with this question, and this business model conflict is something that needs to be resolved quickly by Google. Akhavan points out…

When AT&T and Apple partner on the iPhone or T-Mobile partners with Google on mobile advertising, these new arrangements force the question: “Who pays whom and when?” Billing, payment and content management for broadcast, advertising, search and music all are significantly different. Carriers are having to develop new business models that are compatible with the changing business models of the other key players in the ecosystem. The business models have to be as interoperable as the technologies.

After talking extensively to the mobile industry insiders, I believe Google Mobile OS is going to become part of the new mobile ecosystem. More on that later tonight, once I get a chance to sit and write.

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It’s time we hear from Google about its mobile phone plans

We’ve been waiting a long time to hear from Google about its mobile plans and the so-called Gphone or Google-powered phones. According to one report, that wait may be over soon.

The Wall Street Journal today said Google is expected to announce within the next two weeks advanced software and services that would allow handset makers to bring Google-powered phones to market by next summer. Google’s goal is to make applications and services as accessible on cellphones as they are on the Internet.

To compliment the WSJ’s story, Reuters noted that Google is in active talks with Verizon, the No. 2 carrier in the U.S., about putting Google applications on phones it offers.



And in early October, The New York Times posited that the Google phone may not be a phone at all but a mobile operating system.

Google Phone concepts

Obviously speculation abounds, which the tech community thrives on. The WSJ believes that Google-powered phones will wrap together several Google applications like the search engine, Google Maps, YouTube, and Gmail — no surprise there. It makes sense.

The WSJ says the “most radical element” of Google’s plan is its push to make software for the phone(s) open “right down to the operating system” — again, no surprise. It makes sense.

If the Google phones are “open”, independent software developers would gain access to the tools they need to build additional phone features, something that Nokia is already experimenting with. Apple will also be opening up, to some degree at least, early next year.

Of course all of this — and what’s been written the past two months — is speculation. It’s time we hear from Google.

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Will Google Turn to HTC for GPhone Production?

Forbes is keeping the Google GPhone speculation going with the suggestion that Google could turn to little-known cell phone manufacturer, HTC.As we’ve already speculated ourselves, it makes sense for Google to focus on the phone software and let someone else take care of the actual phone hardware. Google, doesn’t want to be a manufacturer.


What will Google choose?



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