Google today unveiled a new software platform and a broad alliance of mobile handset makers and communications companies in a bid to accelerate the slow development of the mobile internet.
Engineers have been working on the software for three years, dating back to a Silicon Valley startup called Android Inc. that Google acquired in 2005. The mobile software still bears the Android name in acknowledgment of its heritage.
Android is designed to make it easier for developers to create mobile applications that run on many different handsets. At the moment, mobile technology is fragmented, relying on a several different operating systems and development environments. That has reduced the potential market for developers creating games, entertainment or other services for any one handset.
The alliance members come from the telecom and wireless software industries. Many of them are second-tier players that Google hopes will use the phone technology to build devices that can challenge the likes of Nokia, Apple and Verizon Wireless.
The list of wireless carriers that have agreed to provide service for the Google-powered phone in the United States include Sprint Nextel and Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile in the United States. China Mobile, Telefonica in Spain and Telecom Italia are among the carriers that have signed on to provide service outside the United States.
They are among a Google-led group of 34 companies that have formed the Open Handset Alliance. Other key players include major chip makers like Intel, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, Broadcom and Nvidia.
What Google gets in return is more real estate for selling ads. Ninety-nine percent of Google's revenues come from ads, either the ones it puts next to free Internet-based services like search and email, or through syndication on third-party Web pages. The bigger the Internet gets, Google executives figure, the more pages there are for ads and the more people will need search (with more ads) to find anything.
