Google Phone

The writing is on the wall and now people who have been briefed on Google’s cellphone project have revealed that Google has invested hundreds of millions of dollars into it. And yes, it has developed prototype handsets, is currently in talks with operators such as T-Mobile USA and Verizon Wireless, and has talked through technical specifications with phone manufacturers. Consumers can expect a variety of Google phones from multiple manufacturers based on its specs and better yet you may not even have to change carriers because it’s more than likely multiple operators will offer them.

Beautiful concept rendering of the Google phone courtesy of T3.

Don’t dump that new iPhone or old clamshell phone just yet because the Google Phone  wouldn’t be available until next year at the earliest, say people familiar with the project.

The Mountain View, Calif., company has made clear it is serious about developing advanced software and services for cellphones. “What’s interesting about the ads in the mobile phone is that they are twice as profitable or more than the nonmobile phone ads because they’re more personal,” said Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt at the D: All Things Digital conference in May.

A Google spokesman yesterday declined to comment on a Google phone project, but noted: “We are partnering with almost all of the carriers and manufacturers to get Google search and other Google applications onto their devices and networks.”

Once again, people familiar with the matter stated that “the Google phone project goes far beyond Google’s existing deals to include its search engine or applications such as Maps on select handsets.”

Read the rest of this entry »

The new rules set by FCC for the 700 MHz band, which will become available for new services in 2009 once TV broadcasters completely migrate to DTV. It’s clear that Google and other Internet parties won a partial victory when FCC voted to require “open access” for devices and applications using services delivered in these bands, while not requiring the winner to sell wholesale capacity in the licensed spectrum.

In a nutshell:

The “open access” requirement allow you as consumers to use the devices of your choice and download and use applications of your choice, subject to “reasonable network management requirements that allows the licensee to protect the network from harm.”

Nothing frustrates me more than comments such as the one below, written by an editor of PCMag.com, where fear of change has seemingly overtaken the desire for fresh thinking:

The company seems least prepared to work in the mobile service space. Verizon, AT&T, and even Google’s new partner, Sprint, are not exactly industry darlings or customer favorites, but they know this business and, even if motivated purely by greed, are bound to build a better network than Google. Perhaps they would use it to enhance the mobile devices we already have. I don’t see Google doing any of that. In fact, Google’s history of throwing out a free, beta product isn’t yielding the same kind of results it did a few years ago, and I’d hesitate to let the company take a similar approach to wireless.

Breaking this down, Ulanoff appears to be saying that Google doesn’t know what they are doing and are unlikely to push forward or create new products and services; in other words, they wouldn’t make the best use of the 700 MHz. Moreover, he would rather see the “beach front” property go to Verizon, AT&T or Sprint simply because they’re stalwarts in the industry and despite the fact that they are “motivated purely by greed” — and yes, by the way, they are “bound” to build a better network than Google. My bullshit meter is flying off the scale; let me try to explain why. First of all, let me say this again, what Google doesn’t know now, they’ll buy out whole companies or recruit the best minds in the business to figure out. And secondly, should the 700 MHz spectrum go to Verizon or AT&T, they’ll squat on it for years to come to protect their existing infrastructure. Finally, unless Ulanoff knows something that we all don’t regarding Google’s “master plan”, or he can predict the future, his overall stance seems pretty sweeping when the little Google has revealed about its intentions is mightily inconclusive.

Read the rest of this entry »