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Oct. 30, 2007

Google is getting ready to unveil its new Gphone mobile platform. The search giant wants to loosen the carriers' grip on what applications are made available on mobile phones.

Google wants to make applications and services as readily accessible on mobile phones as they are on the Internet.

Google is to reveal a mobile platform in the next two weeks, which would allow handset makers to bring Google-powered mobile phones to market by the middle of 2008.

Google has been in talks with a few handset manufacturers, including HTC and LG about building phones around its mobile platform.

The search giant has also been courting carriers, most notably T-Mobile USA and Orange in Europe and the U.K.

Overall, Google-powered mobile phones are expected to not only include Google applications such as search, maps and Gmail, but are also slated to offer an open operating platform, which would allow third-party developers to build more mobile applications.

Carriers have not traditionally been warm to "open" mobile platforms. This has been a source of contention around the FCC's open access requirements surrounding a swath of spectrum that will be auctioned off less than three months.

Google actively lobbied the FCC in favor of open access regulations just a month ago.

Many mobile platforms are increasingly open to third party developers. Apple just announced that it will be releasing a developer tool kit in 2008, allowing developers to create outside applications for the iPhone.

Microsoft's Window Mobile OS also allows for outside software developers to create programs, though it runs newer services through a certification process.

Nevertheless, Google is certainly pushing for a more "open" mobile market and could have some effect on how tightly carriers and service providers continue to control what users can do on the go.

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Source: Wireless Week