Google hears the call of mobile market

The company lines up allies to write software that could revolutionize cell phones

Google rules your computer. Now it wants to rule your mobile phone.

The company on Monday took the wraps off its much-awaited strategy to move into the cell phone business, unveiling a new software platform and agreements with 33 partners that it says could dramatically advance Internet-type services on mobile phones.

Google isn't making or selling its own handset -- at least not yet -- as Apple does with its iPhone. Nor is Google planning to offer its own cell phone service, like carriers AT&T, Sprint or Verizon.

But if it lives up to its billing, Google's "Android" software package could someday be just as revolutionary for the cell phone industry.

At the heart of "Android" is an operating system and a full-featured Internet browser, like computer users are accustomed to, that will work over all types of new cell phones.

Just as importantly, Google's software will be an "open source" platform, meaning other software developers can build and distribute their products more easily than they can today.

According to Google and its newest partners, that means all sorts of nascent applications, such as games, video, music -- and of course Google Search, Google Maps, Google G-mail, YouTube and other Google products as well -- will work much better on mobile phones than they do today.

"Users will have much, much better access to standard Internet experiences, and ultimately, a superior mobile experience," Google CEO Eric Schmidt said.

Atlanta telecom industry analyst Jeff Kagan said Google's software and the new "Open Handset Alliance" it created with its newest partners are potential industry changers -- if they work.

Cell phones "are clearly becoming the third screen," Kagan said. "You have your TV, your computer and now your wireless mobile screen. ... But to use [the mobile phone], it's clunky, currently."

Google's industrywide, open-source platform "is a good idea," he said, "but how well it's executed is the question."

Of course, some mobile phones already come with rich Internet offerings. Apple's iPhone lets users download and watch videos and listen to music, for instance, while BlackBerry devices and "Smart phones" based on Microsoft's or Palm's software can send e-mail, browse the Internet and do other functions.

But those sorts of services aren't easily available on the majority of less-expensive handsets. Even when they are, they don't work well across networks -- making it difficult for an AT&T user to play online games or swap Internet videos with a Sprint or Verizon user, for instance.

What Google wants to do is make Internet-based services work on mobile phones more like they do on computers.

Unlike every mobile phone, virtually every computer today can access the Internet, of course, regardless of the brand or who supplies the Internet access. As a result, e-mail works fine between a Dell PC or an Apple laptop, and you can watch YouTube regardless of whether your Internet provider is EarthLink or AT&T or Time Warner.

If Google is successful, you could have those same sorts of experiences with cell phones -- regardless of brand or service provider.

Open Handset Alliance

Already, heavy hitters like Sprint and T-Mobile; Texas Instruments and Qualcomm; Samsung and LG Electronics have signed on to Google's Open Handset Alliance.

Still, though, others like Verizon, AT&T and Apple haven't. Persuading those companies to drop their own platforms and shift to Google's won't be easy, Kagan and other analysts said.

Either way, everybody in the mobile phone business realizes that ubiquitous mobile Internet services -- and money-making advertising that can be attached to them -- are key growth areas. According to figures from technology research firm MultiMedia Intelligence, the mobile video advertising business alone will be worth $2 billion by 2011.

"The future of mobile is the Internet -- Web services, e-mail, personalization, social networking and entertainment," said Ed Zander, CEO of Motorola. "We believe this initiative will help bring seamless connected services and rich consumer experiences more rapidly than the market has seen before."

The time frame

Google plans to release "Android" to developers next week. But it will probably be late next year before any phones based on the software will hit the market. Both T-Mobile and handset maker HTC said Monday that they plan to launch services based on the software in the second half of 2008.

Google's Schmidt, meanwhile, sidestepped questions about if or when the Mountain View, Calif.-based technology company will start selling its own cell phone, as Apple does.

Industry watchers who were awaiting Monday's announcement widely expected Google to launch a "G-phone" and/or its own cellular service.

"This is not announcement of G-phone," Schmidt said on a conference call. But "if you were to build a G-phone, you'd want to build it based on this platform."

(The Los Angeles Times contributed to this report.)