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Google Unveils Cellphone Alliance

By AMOL SHARMA and KEVIN J. DELANEY
November 5, 2007 4:09 p.m.

GoogleInc. announced today an ambitious alliance with 33 handset makers,wireless carriers and other technology companies to create low-costmobile phones based on "open" technology standards.
The Mountain View, Calif., Internet company said thenew cellphone technology it is creating with its partners – which itcalls Android – would enable faster development of innovative cellphonefeatures. The platform includes several layers of software for phones,including an operating system, a user interface and applications. Amongthe handset makers that signed on to Google's initiative were Taiwan'sHTC 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 Googleplanned to announce its plans for open mobile phones today. For months,the wireless industry has been abuzz with speculation about Google'smobile initiatives. 
The company's announcement could prove a short-termdisappointment for consumers who were eager for more details – andphotos – of what some have termed the "Google Phone" or the "Gphone."The company didn't announce the creation of any single Google-powereddevice or show what one would look like. Indeed, it said it would takeuntil the second half of 2008 before phones based on the Androidplatform come to market.
The initiative is a sign of Google's frustration withthe way the cellphone industry works. Carriers and handset makerscontrol what services customers can access and use operating systemsthat sometimes restrict software developers from accessing informationlike a user's Global Positioning System location, contact list or Webbrowsing. Google and its partners hope to spur greater innovation inareas like location-aware services and social networking, and to makecellphones more like the Web. The companies said they would release aset of tools for developers next week.
"This partnership will help unleash the potential ofmobile technology for billions of users around the world," said GoogleChairman and CEO Eric Schmidt in a statement. "A fresh approach tofostering innovation in the mobile industry will help shape a newcomputing environment that will change the way people access and shareinformation in the future."
MEMBERS OF GOOGLE'S ALLIANCE
 
Handset Makers
Motorola Inc., Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics, HTC Corp.
Service Providers
Sprint Nextel Corp., T-Mobile, NTT DoCoMo, China Mobile, Telecom Italia, Telefonica, KDDI
Semiconductor Firms
Intel Corp., Qualcomm Inc., Texas Instruments Inc., Broadcom Corp., Marvell Technology Group Ltd., Nvidia Corp.
Technology Firms
Aplix, Audience Corp.,Ascender Corp., eBay Inc., Esmertec, Living Image, NMS Communications,Noser, Nuance Communications, PacketVideo, SiRF, SkyPop, SONiVOX,Synaptics, TAT-The Astonishing Tribe, Wind River Systems

The name of the new alliance stems from Google's 2005purchase of Android Inc., a Silicon Valley startup co-founded by AndyRubin. Mr. Rubin has been central to Google's plans of buildingsoftware for mobile devices.
At the core, Google is betting that easier consumeraccess to Internet services from their mobile phones will leadconsumers to use its services more—which has been the case with Webaccess on the personal computer. The open model echoes Google'sannouncement last week of OpenSocial technical specifications to beused by social networking sites and software developers creatingapplications for them.
Google's strategy of cooperating with multiple handsetmaker and operator partners to develop what Mr. Schmidt said could be"thousands of different phone models" differs starkly from that ofApple 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 maynot be on the design of phones, but the economics of how they are soldto consumers. If the company, as expected, gives away its new mobilesoftware to handset makers for free or at least a steep discount toexisting operating system providers, the savings could be passed on toconsumers. In addition, people familiar with Google's plans say thecompany one day hopes to partly subsidize the cost of phones by showingtargeted ads to users. Google has created an ad-brokering system formobile phones that builds on its advertising platform for the Web.
The prospect of richer cellphone features andlower-cost phones has enticed several carriers to sign on to Google'sinitiative. Carriers will be able to customize the "open source"Android software as they see fit. The Android technology would be acompetitor to cellphone operating systems like Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Mobile and Symbian.
But until any new handsets based on Android come tomarket, it will be unclear just how far operators have gone to satisfyGoogle's desire for open mobile software. Carriers will still want tomake sure sensitive user information doesn't fall into the hands ofrogue third-party developers, leading to invasions of privacy andsecurity risks. Those issues partly explain why large U.S. operatorslike AT&TInc. and Verizon Wireless, a joint venture of Verizon CommunicationsInc. 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: QualcommInc., for example, tightly controls its "Brew" mobile platform, whichruns games and other applications on phones for carriers such asVerizon. And many handset makers chafe at the royalties they payQualcomm because of its patents on basic cellphone chips.
Motorola's participation in the Google project isstriking, given how the company was burned by Apple when the iPhonelaunched. Motorola worked with Apple to release a music phone calledthe 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 Motorolaproducts," said Motorola Chairman and CEO Ed Zander in the statement.