Google gives peak at its mobile plan
SAN FRANCISCO -- Google provided the first glimpse at its mobile ambitions Monday with the announcement of a free software package scheduled to hit the market during the second half of next year.
The system is designed to unify the developers of mobile applications around a common platform that makes it easier and more enticing to surf the Web on cell phones. The new package is called "Android" in tribute to a Silicon Valley startup that Google acquired two years ago to steer its secretive project.
Mountain View-based Google is hoping Android opens another lucrative channel for peddling ads and services to people when they're away from their personal computers, supplementing the revenue already pouring into the company from Internet advertising.
Google isn't making cell phones, nor does it plan to put its name on the devices equipped with its software. Instead, it will work with four manufacturers and 29 other companies that have formed the Open Handset Alliance to help launch Google's mobile software.
So far, Schaumburg-based Motorola, Samsung Electronics Co., HTC and LG Electronics Inc. have agreed to use Android in some of their phones.
Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt hinted the company might eventually make its own phone powered by the new software.
"We don't want to foreclose any options in the future," Schmidt told reporters during a Monday conference call.
Android relies on openly available computer code that gives equal access to all programmers. That freedom is meant to foster innovation and new uses for the sophisticated handsets known as smart phones.
Google will release a tool kit for developers next week. Consumers will have to buy a new phone to get the Google software because Android was not designed for existing handsets.
Even with its market debut months away, Android looms as a significant threat to other mobile operating systems made by Microsoft, Research In Motion Ltd., Palm Inc. and Symbian, which is owned by Nokia, and several other major phone makers. Because Android will be free, it could undercut rival operating systems that handset makers must buy. The smart phones it comes on also could be less expensive since manufacturers won't have to pay for software.
With 3 billion cell phones already on the market, Google wants to ensure people can use its services, such as the search engine, e-mail and maps, on mobile handsets as easily as on personal computers.
But major wireless carriers zealously control which services can be accessed in an effort to maximize their own profits. And this "walled garden" approach has lessened the incentive to connect to the Internet on cell phones.
The wireless carriers that have agreed to provide service for the Google-powered phone in the U.S. include Sprint Nextel Corp. and Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile.
Executives for both Motorola and HTC told reporters Monday that their companies will keep making phones equipped with other operating systems, such as Windows Mobile.
Other key players include major chip makers like Intel Corp., Qualcomm Inc., Texas Instruments Inc., Broadcom Corp. and Nvidia Corp.