Will Google Go Mobile?
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The FCC's auction of rights to a huge chunk of radio airwaves invites new players to the telecom game. If Google bids big, it could mean open wireless access for all
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While Google is currently the undisputed king (making others the queen, prince, baron, duke and viscount) of search that&#8217;s not necessarily going to automatically translate into mobile &#8212; the next big opportunity. Indeed, mobile is potentially disruptive (ring the bell!) of online market share. GigaOm&#8217;s Katie Fehrenbacher has a good post on Google and mobile along [...]
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Blog: Wall Street Journal reports that Google working on ringtone, game search for mobile devices
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Rumours de jour Google is close to buying phone management company GrandCentral which provides one number for life which can be routed to various actual numbers.â¦
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2007 could be called the year of the mobile operating system.Since Microsoft entered the scene around five years ago, the smartphone operating system industry has been fairly stable. Symbian, Linux, Research in Motion, and Windows Mobile make up the bulk of smartphone software, each to varying degrees of success in different regions.But in 2007,&#160;Apple introduced the iPhone, which runs its own brand of software, and Google announced that next year its&#160;Android mobile operating system platform&#160;will come out.The entrance of two new operating systems from well-known brands shakes up the plans of some mobile operators, creates some headaches for end-users, presents bigger challenges for application developers, and indicates some fundamental changes in the mobile industry.To put the discussion in perspective, realize that smartphones make up a relatively small portion of overall mobile phone sales. In 2006, 8 percent of phones sold were smartphones, said Chris Hazelton, an analyst with IDC. That&#39;s set to grow in 2007, but will likely hit only the low double digits, he said.Why all the interest then? The industry has high hopes that existing phone owners, who now make up a large part of the overall population in developed countries, will want to move on to the next generation of more capable smartphones.In addition, operators are gradually indicating that they&#39;re stepping aside from their role as gatekeeper and will allow more outside companies to offer phones and services to their customers, opening up new opportunities for software, hardware, and Web services companies.Verizon and AT&amp;T have recently made bold statements indicating that they&#39;re opening up their networks to more devices. While end-users might have the option to use a wider variety of devices,&#160;Verizon&#39;s announcement&#160;at least comes with a catch. &quot;It&#39;s like, &#39;OK, we&#39;ll bow to what you want, but be careful what you wish for. You can bring these phones to our network, but if you have problems, don&#39;t call us&#39;,&quot; said Hazelton. Verizon hasn&#39;t promised technical support for handsets that run on its network as part of its new open program.Still, at the very least mobile customers in general will soon be able to add the iPhone and new Android phones to the list of handsets they can choose from. That&#39;s good and bad for phone customers. &quot;End-users will probably need to do a bunch more homework,&quot; said Scott Horn, general manager of Microsoft&#39;s mobile communications business. That&#39;s because they&#39;ll need to figure out if the new software can support the features and services they want.At the same time that operators are opening up to new handsets, they&#39;re also beginning to ease restrictions on which online services customers can use. The trend started in Europe, where operators such as Vodafone have said that the bulk of their online data revenue came from services offered by third parties outside of its portal. Operators also learned how difficult it is to build a portal of desirable services. &quot;It&#39;s an incredibly resource intensive and expensive undertaking,&quot; Horn said. The shift away from the walled garden is just starting in the United States, he said.Allowing easier access to Web services is relevant to the software on the phones. Microsoft says that some handset makers and operators are interested in Windows Mobile because of its support of popular Microsoft services&#160;such as&#160;Live IM and Hotmail for mobile users. Google has a whole host of services that it targets at mobile users, from which it hopes to earn advertising dollars. And Apple has cleverly linked the use of the iPhone and its software with iTunes, where customers can buy content.All of these changes represent a major challenge for many operators. Some operators have in the last year or so said they want to support just a couple of operating systems as a way to cut costs related to support and training, Hazelton said. &quot;I think carriers are kind of backing down on the demand that there be fewer platforms,&quot; he said, as a result of the new software hitting the market.The additional operating systems might also pose a problem for application developers. &quot;It will be hard for application developers to pick,&quot; Hazelton said. Developers don&#39;t always focus on just one platform, but there will be so many operating systems in the mobile space that it will be difficult for them to choose which will be the most popular. For now in the United States, BlackBerry and Windows Mobile have the largest developer base and that should continue in the foreseeable future, he said.But the new operating systems should also serve to grow the number of developers, Horn said. Developers will continue to have to make bets about which platform will pay off. &quot;That&#39;s always been the case. Developers say, &#39;Where&#39;s the biggest market for my talents and which market has the lowest cost to enter?&#39; In many ways, it&#39;s an economically driven decision for developers,&quot; Horn said.The experts agree that the new operating systems don&#39;t pose a threat to any particular existing platform provider. &quot;The more entrants in the near term means faster growth in the category, driving us all up collectively,&quot; Horn said. &quot;There will be big players and there will be niche players, we&#39;ll see different business models.&quot;Hazelton agreed. &quot;There&#39;s more a benefit than a threat because it serves to broaden awareness of smartphones,&quot; he said.
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Specialized blogs are all abuzz this week with rumors that Internet giant Google will soon launch the &quot;Google Phone&quot; or &quot;GPhone,&quot; a cheap mobile phone equipped with a Google operating system.
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Yahoo Jazzes Up Mobile Search  Google SMS started serving search results to mobile users in the US just a few days back. Now Yahoo! follows it with even more comprehensive feature set. Google SMS is currently text based for the results; Yahoo! jazzes them up with maps, website icons, as well ...
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Yesterday we covered the news that Google is expanding their search to the mobile arena with their new Google SMS service which lets you search by sending text messages from your cellphone.
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Is one mobile device capable of doing all things ever going to be a reality for your pocket? Microsoft's Steve Ballmer seems headed in that direction, even though some realize there are limits to unification.
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Google released an update to the SDK for Android, its mobile-phone operating system.It&#39;s the first update since the SDK was&#160;released in November&#160;and includes changes requested by developers.Google highlighted a couple of changes in the updated SDK, which was released Wednesday. It has a new user interface that the search giant said is still a work in progress.In addition, developers can now support additional file formats in the Android media player. Also, applications can translate an address into a coordinate and the reverse, in location-based programs.Developers haven&#39;t had much time to review the updates; few have posted reactions on the Android developers&#39; blog.Even though developers said that the first version of the SDK was thin, Android has managed to gain momentum. Four chipmakers, including Qualcomm and Texas Instruments, showed off&#160;prototypes that support Android&#160;this week in Barcelona at the annual Mobile World Congress.Still, Android faces competition from the established mobile operating systems as well as companies that have rallied behind LiMo, the consortium that is developing an open Linux mobile operating system. At the conference in Barcelona,&#160;LiMo announced 18 phones&#160;that comply with the operating-system specification that are either on the market already or will be.
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Internet search giant Google promises "faster, more relevant results" with its new mobile service.
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Web search leader Google Inc. said on Wednesday it will soon make it possible for users of its Gmail service to check their e-mail via Microsoft Outlook or on certain handheld devices such as mobile phones.
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The Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next week may see the first mobile phone to incorporate Google's open-source Android platform.
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InfoWorld - Google's Android software platform for mobile phonesÂ is coming to life in Barcelona with a number of chip manufacturers showing it running on prototype or proof-of-concept phones at the Mobile World Congress on Monday.
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While Google's Android SDK for mobile applications could become a formidable competitor to Sun's own Java platform, Sun vice president James Gosling said Wednesday it is not possible for Sun to take a position on Android.Speaking at the Java Mobile &amp; Embedded Developer Days conference at Sun headquarters in Santa Clara, Calif., Gosling cited insufficient information from Google.?"It's impossible to have a position [on Android], right, because there is no data," he said when interviewed at the event. "Over the last couple of years, Google's been showing their phone at telecom conferences all over the world and with different business models, all of which really scared the carriers and handset makers. And then with Android, they put out a bag of code with no business model."Unless the day comes when they say what they're going to do with it, it's just a bag of code sitting out there," Gosling said.There has been speculation that Android, which leverages Java, could fragment the Java platform. Android was announced Nov. 5 by the Open Handset Alliance. This group features Google and other participants looking to foster innovation on mobile phones and offer a better consumer experience, according to a press statement.An Android SDK has leveraged both the Eclipse open source platform and Java classes. Android applications are written using the Java programming language, according to a Google FAQ about Android dated Dec. 14.Google could not be reached for comment on Wednesday.A speaker at Wednesday's conference, however, gave Android a thumbs-up."I like some of the capability in the Android platform," said Sean O'Sullivan, CTO of Rococo Software, who presented on Java Specification Request (JSR) 82 pertaining to Java APIs for Bluetooth. "In particular, I like the ability to customize lots of different elements within the Android platform."Sun, meanwhile, is moving Java ME (Micro Edition) technologies to smaller systems such as microcontrollers, while Java SE (Standard Edition) capabilities are due to be offered on newer cell phones with greater functionality, Sun officials said at the conference. Java SE capabilities are expected to be included in the planned JavaFX Mobile platform for cell phones and devices.Also at the event, Sun announced the open-sourcing of the Squawk virtual machine, which is a Java ME-compliant virtual machine used in the Sun SPOT platform. Other components of Sun SPOT, including libraries, will be open-sourced at a later date after more due diligence, said Roger Meike, director of operations in Sun Microsystems Labs, which has overseen the Sun SPOT project.Sun hopes by releasing Squawk, developers will extend it beyond mobile phones. Squawk and Sun SPOT are already being used in applications such as robotics.Also open-sourced by Sun at the conference was the JXTA (Juxtapose) Java ME MIDP2.0 Proxyless Implementation. JXTA allows for setting up ad hoc networks of devices such as phones for applications, including discovery of participants in a conference, said Mohamed Abdelaziz, lead architect within the advanced development group of Sun's Java client software group.O'Sullivan noted the Marge project, a framework to help developers build Bluetooth applications in Java, is intended to facilitate use of JSR 82.
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With 3GSM, one of the biggest mobile communications conferences, just a week away, rumors are swirling about a major announcement that might very well shake up the world of mobile search.
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Google on Thursday, October 5, announced a new test service. People will need only mobile phones or handheld devices and they should tap Google&#39;s Web search via text messages, or short message service.