Google Phone

Rumor is swirling around the forthcoming iPhone-like HTC Dream. Handset maker High Tech Computer (HTC) is expected to be the first company out the door with an Android-powered phone set to release sometime in 2008 (possibly near the June time frame).

The HTC Dream will include many of the iPhone features, such as the full touch screen interface and keyboard. It is expected to measure 5-inch long and 3-inch wide. According to AllHeadLineNews, there will be a keyboard below the screen.

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In typically scathing style, a post-Keynote Steve Jobs has told the New York Times’ John Markoff of his doubts regarding the Android cellphone platform, calling on Apple’s own experience building the iPhone to illustrate the perils involved in formulating a new mobile platform.

“Having created a phone its a lot harder than it looks.  We’ll see how good their software is and we’ll see how consumers like it and how quickly it is adopted” Steve Jobs, Apple CEO

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Nokia has hit back at Google’s Android platform, with CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo dismissing the Open Handset Alliance’s OS launch with the suggestion that the Finnish company themselves have already trodden much of the software ground Google and partners are currently bringing attention to: “conceptually, we could have made that announcement a long time ago.”  In fact, with their announcement of the Ovi internet-services project - that has recently clinched the support of Vodafone, already a vocal critic of Android - that will combine their music and mapping services, as well as hints of geo-targeted advertising, their position as chief rival to the Google OS seems increasingly cemented.

“Mobile phones have two qualities that PCs don’t have: they’re always with you, and they tell other people where you are” Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, CEO, Nokia

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Datamation’s Kenneth van Wyk rolls up his sleeves and sets to work comparing the relative security strengths of the Android platform and Apple’s iPhone, using a combination of architecture documentation, premonition and feedback from the latter’s avid hacker community.  He rates them in categories of application security architecture, openness and configuration management, as well as examining how straightforward it is for third-party software to tap into the underlying safety features:

“There’s more to “openness” than just accessibility of a product’s source code. The Android team has clearly documented the process for developing and installing applications for Android, including how to interface with the underlying security framework. That openness has already resulted in at least one product vendor announcing it will be developing security applications—firewall, anti-spam, anti-malware, etc—for the platform” Kenneth van Wyk, Datamation

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While some are content to pit Android against atypical ‘rivals’ like the iPhone, InformationWeek’s Eric Zeman is posing the far more realistic question of what Nokia can do to preserve their 78-percent smartphone OS market share. 

“Even the latest iteration of S60 (which has been under constant development for eons) doesn’t do some of the things we saw in the Android demo. While Symbian and Nokia are probably hard at work developing touch-capable software and phones, Google already has done it, to a certain extent. The demos highlight how applications can be used and tied together seamlessly to create a natural workflow” Eric Zeman, InformationWeek

Thing is, Nokia have already been showing off their touchscreen cellphone concept: the imaginatively named Nokia Touch, which is set to launch sometime next year complete with the next generation in haptic-feedback.

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Somewhere in the caves of the internet there are people playing Robert Scoble Bingo - you can get a full house if you predict which technologies will float the former Microsoft tech-evangelist’s boat, without getting sidetracked by those he takes an avid dislike to.  Latest under Robert’s loupe is Android, and if you thought an open-source, Linux-based free platform together with $10m of financial backing for developers would make him moist around the pelvis then think again; he’s not impressed.

“I didn’t see ONE feature that will get normal people to switch from the iPhone. This comes across like something developers developed for other developers without thought of how they were going to build a movement” Robert Scoble

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Might Google’s interest in the 700MHz spectrum be as a means to establish a data cloud for the new generation of internet appliances?  Nicholas Carr’s prediction piece - on the potential of a partnership between Google and Apple producing OS X-based relatively closed-system computers that rely on the search company’s background mainframes to store and backup data - puts a fresh potential spin on the upcoming auction.

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Just as happened with the iPhone, the prophesied Google cellphone is causing pre-emptive waves across newsrooms and blogs as various agencies sift through the scant evidence and clamour to have their say.  Today it’s the turn of the New York Times, who are keen to differentiate between the “revolutionary” and “customer experience redefining” iPhone and Google’s potential next-step into the mobile marketplace.

No longer is this step a rumour; it’s become a matter of when and not if.  NYT’s Miguel Helft is quick to label the search giant’s intent: using mobile ads to broaden their market share.  If anything, Helft makes it sound like, where Apple planned a revolution in the cellphone industry, Google aren’t particularly bothered what industry they’re entering, just as long as it caters to their role as advert and search provider.

“Google wants to extend its dominance of online advertising to the mobile Internet, a small market today, but one that is expected to grow rapidly. It hopes to persuade wireless carriers and mobile phone makers to offer phones based on its software” Miguel Helft, NYT

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Well according to Business Week they have had two independent sources contact them saying that is the case. I love the idea of anyone except the traditional telcos getting their hands on this spectrum. Much like Google, I highly doubt Apple would stay with the traditional business model for companies that own spectrum.

In fact I would be willing to wager that even Google would be happy with Apple getting the spectrum, as long as it wasn’t another wireless service provider to come along and lock down the spectrum and restrict its use. This biggest, and this is a big one, difference between Google and Apple, is that Apple already has lots of experience with the mobile market as they have already gone through the whole handset design, release, and upkeep process which means they are already familiar with that end of things whereas Google’s only experience in the mobile market is with its apps that are constantly being added to handsets.
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