Why Do I Care About The Google Phone?

I have to spend a few sentences on the announcement by Google that they would be developing a new mobile phone platform, called Android. The interesting part about the announcement is that they have teamed up with over 30 high profile companies in the mobile space, including T-mobile and Sprint, as part of an initiative called the Open Handset Alliance. Why should you care? Well, for starters, maybe we can finally get to a point where we can break the death grip of the US wireless carriers. Wouldn't it be great to have a phone that is capable of working on any network in the US and isn't exclusive to one carrier (i.e. Apple's deal with AT&T to have the iPhone running on the AT&T network fo the next 5 years.) Google's genius is that they are out to crush the smartphone makers out there by offering their technology as opensource free to most handset makers. The handset makers will have the ability to add features to the operating systems to differentiate themselves from the herd.

Two carriers, AT&T and Verizon, opted out of the OHA while one company, Qualcomm, who developed the BREW platform that only runs on Verizon opted in. While AT&T and Verizon will try to keep their death grip on their partners and their subscribers for the time being the signing of Qualcomm makes you think that the old way of US Carrier's doing business might be changing. Don't forget, they tried this once before when they would not open up their networks to the mobile internet. Instead, they subscribed to the "walled garden" theory of life. Lock your customers into browsing only what you allow them to and purchasing only the content you offer them. This, of course, came crashing down and I suspect its just a matter of time before AT&T and Verizon sign on to the OHA.