Google Phone: Google looks into the future and sees Free Cell Phones for everyone

[mandy]

Web search leader Google Inc.'s chief executive, Eric Schmidt, sees a future where mobile phones are free to consumers who accept watching targeted forms of advertising.

Schmidt said Saturday that as mobile phones become more like handheld computers and consumers spend as much as eight to 10 hours a day talking, texting and using the Web on these devices, advertising becomes a viable form of subsidy.

"Your mobile phone should be free," Schmidt told Reuters. "It just makes sense that subsidies should increase" as advertising rises on mobile phones...

full article: http://money.cnn.com/2006/11/11/technolo...2006111122

[mandy]

A related article:

The head of Google in Spain and Portugal has confirmed that Google is working on a mobile phone. "Some of the time the engineers are dedicated to developing a mobile phone," Isabel Aguilera is quoted as saying on the Spanish news Web site Noticias.com.

Google spokespeople in the United States have repeatedly declined to comment on rumors of a Google Phone, but the smoke has been rising lately. Earlier this month, Simeon Simeonov of Polaris Venture Partners wrote in his blog that an inside source told him the Google Phone will be a BlackBerry-like device running C++ at the core with an operating system bootstrap and optimized Java and that it would offer voice over Internet Protocol...

full article: http://news.com.com/2061-10812_3-6167826.html?part=rss&tag=2547-1_3-0-5&subj=news

[mandy]

Update: Google denies Google Phone rumors:

It looks like we won’t be phoning home with a Google mobile anytime real soon. A top Google executive has denied outright that the company is developing a mobile phone...

Google won’t focus on individual handsets...

Instead, Google wants to reach a larger number of users by continuing to work with mobile phone makers like Motorola, and service providers...

full article: http://tech.blorge.com/Structure:%20/200...ile-phone/

[mandy]

Update on the Google Phone:

Here is what I have been able to gather from my sources:

    * An announcement will likely be made Nov. 13th or Nov. 18th.
    * Handset makers will use a Google Mobile OS platform.
    * Google Mobile OS uses a highly optimized Mobile Linux; developers will be able to use a Java Development Kit. Google is said to have developed a highly optimized Java running on top of the OS. (Read our previous post, Five Facts about Google Phone.)
    * Most major handset makers, with the exception of Nokia (NOK), have devices with Google Mobile OS under development; Samsung and Motorola (MOT) are being linked to it as well. (as are HTC and LG Electronics, according to the Journal.)
    * The operators who are likely to be part of the big announcement will be T-Mobile’s USA division and Bharti Airtel, one of India’s largest cellular carriers.

full article: http://gigaom.com/2007/10/31/the-google-...more-10572

more:

Google Inc. is in advanced talks with two top U.S. cellphone operators, Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel Corp., about selling handsets tailored to its new mobile-phone operating system, people familiar with the matter said.

Deals with the carriers would represent a major breakthrough for the Internet search giant, which until now has encountered wariness from some quarters of the wireless industry about its mobile-phone plans...

full article: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119377870431576706.html

[Kristijntje]

Update on Google's Android open source mobile platform:

There's little doubt that Google and the other members of the Open Handset Alliance (OHA) made one of the biggest technology marketing splashes in recent memory on Monday with their introduction of Android. What kind of lasting impact the platform will have on the cellular industry, however, is less certain.

Android is billed as the first truly open and comprehensive platform for mobile devices, and it boasts an impressive list of supporters, including T-Mobile, HTC, Qualcomm, Motorola and others. The goal, according to the participating companies, is to foster innovation and lower the cost of developing and distributing mobile devices and services.

On the surface, that sounds certain to bring benefits to the industry, to developers and to consumers. The reality, however, is that much has yet to be decided...

full article: http://ecommercetimes.com/story/Googles-...60237.html

more:

Is there such a thing as a Google phone, or "Gphone", yet?
No. Google has announced an industry group, the Open Handset Alliance, which promises to produce phones by the second half of next year — and promises, furthermore, that they will be exciting in ways that have yet to be announced.

The phones will use a free Linux operating system from Google subsidiary Android, which is producing a free software-development kit for phone makers and application developers, released under the Apache v2 licence. A "first look" at the SDK will be released on 12 November...

full article: http://resources.zdnet.co.uk/articles/fa...669,00.htm