Google phone is really all about software, not hardware

November 5, 2007 · Filed Under Apple stuff, Google

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So, finally an official announcement about the Google Phone.

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 5 — Google took its long-awaited plunge into the wireless world today, announcing that it is leading a broad industry alliance to transform mobile phones into powerful mobile computers that could accelerate the convergence of computing and communications.

Mobile phones based on Google’s software are not expected to be available until the second half of next year. They will be manufactured by a variety of handset companies, including HTC, LG, Motorola and Samsung and be available in the United States through T-Mobile and Sprint.

The phones will also be available through the world’s largest mobile operator, China Telecom, with 332 million subscribers in China, and the leading carriers in Japan, NTT DoCoMo and KDDI, as well as T-Mobile in Germany, Telecom Italia in Italy and Telefónica in Spain.

But for now at least, Google will not put its brand on a phone. The software running on the phones may not even display the Google logo. Instead, Google is giving the software away to others who will build the phones. The company invested heavily in the project to ensure that all of its services are available on mobile phones. Its ultimate goal is to cash in on the effort by selling advertisements to mobile phone users, just as it does on Internet-connected computers.

“We are not building a GPhone; we are enabling 1,000 people to build a GPhone,” said Andy Rubin, Google’s director of mobile platforms, who led the effort to develop the software.

Fascinating news, and the thing that really stand out for me, that syncs so well with this announcement, is last week’s anouncement about their OpenSocial API. There is a HUGE potential for developers to utilise the OpenSocial APIs with the Google phone software. I can see some very exciting possibilities, with the potential of going well beyond what we currently have available. Will Apple be worried? I don’t think so at this point in time… but with Google being so close to Apple, it may cause a few noses to be put out of shape. I wonder if Steve knew about this … you would think so with Eric Scmidt being on the board of Apple directors.

I would love to see Google and Apple working more closely together on mobiles. I hope this does not cause too much of a rift.

UPDATE - great write up on the possibilities of what a Google software phone COULD do from Wired.

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