News
Google to unveil open mobile software
Tim Green Nov 5 2007, 11:23am
Gphone gets mobile industry shaking in its little space boots.
Google is going after Microsoft with a move into the mobile software space today.
The net giant will unveil a suite of software for mobiles based on open-source technology code-named Android (the name of a mobile software company acquired by Google in 2005). It will incorporate Linux software into an SDK to be released ‘relatively soon’, say various reports.
According to web source PCWorld, the stack will contain ‘a full set of components including an operating system, a set of common APIs, a middleware layer, a customisable user interface, and even a mobile browser.’
The move is said to have the support of KDDI, NTT DoCoMo, Qualcomm, Broadcom, HTC, Intel, Samsung, Motorola, Sprint, Texas Instruments and others.
Google’s long term goal here would appear to be opening up the notoriously fragmented mobile market, which is currently limited by the proliferation of proprietary handset vendor operating systems and operator APIs.
In theory, an open source OS would make it easier for developers to build one app that would work across hundreds of millions of devices.
The closest the industry comes to this at present are the two smartphone OSs, Symbian and (significantly) Microsoft’s Windows Mobile.
Ultimately, if the net can be truly replicated on mobile, it would accelerate Google’s advertising revenue. The big question is whether operators get a cut. There’s no precedent for this in the wired world, where ISPs do not share Google’s revenues.
