November 05, 2007, 10:04 AM — Google negotiators this weekend continue to hammer out agreements with wireless
carriers, handset makers, software developers and hardware providers, as the
company prepares to announce on Monday an ambitious platform for creating mobile
applications.
Although Google has declined to comment for months on its rumored move into
the mobile space, sources said the company will make an announcement Monday
at 11 a.m. ET, and that details of the plan are being finalized this weekend.
Google will announce an open source development platform for mobile applications
that will contain a full set of components, including an operating system, a
set of common APIs, a middleware layer, a customizable user interface and even
a mobile browser, sources said. Instant messaging standard protocols will also
be supported.
The platform is intended to simplify the process of creating and deploying
mobile applications, so that an application can be built once and be compatible
with multiple phones.
On the partner side, well over 30 industry heavyweights are already on board,
including Intel, Qualcomm, Broadcom, Nvidia, Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile, China
Mobile, Telefonica, NTT DoCoMo, LG Electronics and HTC, the sources said.
With negotiations expected to continue through the weekend and into Monday
morning, it's possible that the list could exceed 40 partners. Among those not
supporting the announcement at press time are Nokia, Verizon and Apple.
The development platform will be freely available to anyone who wants to use
it, and, aside from a common core, will provide a lot of flexibility for modifications
and extensions.
The ultimate goal is to lower the costs and simplify the creation of mobile
applications and spur innovation that, as Google sees it, has been hampered
by technical fragmentation. As such, the Google offering will rival existing
mobile platforms from Microsoft and Symbian.
For Google, the benefit will come indirectly from an acceleration in improvements
to mobile phone interfaces, which the company reasons will make it easier for
people to access online services, like search engines, and applications, from
their mobile phones. The intent is to bridge the gap between the Internet and
mobile phones.
As usage of Google online services increases on mobile devices, so will the
advertising revenue the company generates.
Mobile advertising is a tiny market but is expected to grow quickly in coming
years. According to Opus
Research, mobile advertising spending in North America and Western Europe
will reach a combined US$5.08 billion by 2012, up from an estimated $106.8 million
at the end of this year. This represents a compound annual growth rate (CAGR)
of 116 percent.
Opus Research, which released the
forecast last week, said that improving the mobile user experience will
drive ad revenue growth, which will prompt more people to spend more time using
the Internet via their cell phones.
In addition to Google, all other major providers of online services, like AOL,
Yahoo and Microsoft, are busy tweaking their Web sites and Web applications
for use via mobile phones.
As the Google deal takes its final shape, it appears more and more likely that
it might pit Google against its traditional ally Apple, and align it with carriers
that have been hurt by the success of the iPhone.
Although the platform will be available to anyone, including Apple, it could
indirectly accelerate the pace at which competing handsets catch up with the
iPhone's user experience innovations.
A few weeks ago, Apple announced it will release a software development kit
so that third-party developers can build applications for the iPhone. It expects
to make it available in February.
If Apple is absent from the partner list in Monday's announcement, it could
signal that Steve Jobs's company views the Google platform as a negative development
in the mobile market, an interesting situation, considering Google's CEO Eric
Schmidt sits on Apple's board.
The intensity of this weekend's negotiations is not surprising, but rather
reflective of the bold undertaking Google has assumed in the notoriously complicated
world of dealmaking in the wireless market.
As has been reported previously, the components of the Google platform will
not be delivered until at least mid-2008. At some point, the effort might even
yield a Google-branded phone, sources said.
