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Google to unveil 'Android' mobile-phone software

Tom Krazit CNET News

Published: 05 Nov 2007 08:49 GMT

Google is ready to unveil a suite of software for mobile phones based on open-source technology, backed by some of the largest wireless companies in the world.

The search giant is likely to hold a press conference on Monday to unveil the project, which is expected to incorporate Linux software into a mobile platform code-named Android that is designed to run on phones, according to sources familiar with Google's plans.

A software-development kit is believed to be in the works and will be released soon, the sources said.

It is not exactly clear what kind of software will come as part of that stack, but sources say it will include everything you need to run a phone.

Japanese wireless carriers KDDI and NTT DoCoMo are said to be heavily involved in what will be called the Open Handset Alliance, according to other sources. Qualcomm, Broadcom, HTC, Intel, Samsung, Motorola, Sprint and Texas Instruments will also be involved.

But it is unclear when the final version will be released. Google has repeatedly declined to talk about the "Gphone" or confirm the Monday event.

Persistent rumours of Google's interest in the mobile-phone market have captivated Silicon Valley and the wireless industry for months. The rationale for the company's interest appears to be simple: there are more than a billion mobile phones in the world, and sales show no signs of slowing down.

Over time, these mobile phones are going to become more and more sophisticated, and the race to develop a truly mobile computer is wide open.

Google has the engineering talent to make a concerted push into this area while keeping rivals such as Microsoft at bay, and it has enough resources to force the industry to take it seriously, despite its relative lack of experience in the mobile market.

Mobile phones are just starting to move beyond the stripped-down mobile internet and become more like PCs. As this happens, mobile devices will need search, and they'll need applications tailored for them. Google is experienced in both search and applications.

Android was the name of a mobile-phone software company acquired by Google in 2005 and led by Andy Rubin, the co-founder of Danger, the handset manufacturer. It was never entirely clear what Android was working on, but that now appears to be coming to fruition.

The open-source community appears to be contributing a lot of technology to Android. Google is expected to license Android under the Apache License, version 2.0, according to sources.

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Wind River Systems, a company that specialises in tailoring Linux for embedded devices such as network equipment and mobile phones, is likely to be a key part of the alliance, sources said. The company is expected to play a role in working on a Linux foundation for Google, integrating it with specific hardware, and providing support to phone companies using the software.

A Wind River representative declined to comment on Friday on any Google partnership.

Wind River has previously been keen on its own operating system, VxWorks, but Linux has become a top priority for chief executive Ken Klein.

But Linux in mobile phones has been a tough proposition for consortia over the years. Among those that have tackled the challenge are the Linux Phone Standard (Lips) Forum, the Open Source Developer Labs, the Consumer Electronics Linux Forum (CELF) and, most recently, the LiMo Foundation, which was founded in 2006.

The Google group is separate from LiMo, but the two share many members, and a connection could be beneficial. Linux-based phone software for Google could dovetail with LiMo's work, providing mobile-phone software developers with a unified software foundation.

The operating system on which mobile phones run is important for many reasons. Battery life is paramount, and therefore software must be designed to run inside a constrained environment with limited amounts of memory and processing power at its disposal. Linux appeals to phone makers because it is modular, meaning that it is relatively easy to piece together only the technology you need, and it is relatively cheap to acquire the parts.

The key to Google's success will be the level of user acceptance. People are drawn to sleek hardware, but they spend the majority of their time working with software. However, no details were immediately available as to the look and feel of the software.

Word of the pending Google news had reached JumpTap, a competitor to Google in the mobile ads space that is not included in the announcement. "I'm not sure if it's an industry-supported event or a Google trap to get developers to write to Google software," said Dan Olschwang, chief executive of JumpTap. "If it is really open source and the mobile-phone manufacturers will adopt it, it will be a major industry-changing event."

Google isn't just looking to expand its ad monetisation technology to new platforms, but also to shake up the telecoms industry and its "walled garden" approach that limits what handsets, carriers and services consumers can use, industry experts said.

"Google's stated open-source approach, or open-net approach to life, is antithetical to the way cellular carriers look at the world," said Tim Hanlon, an executive vice president at Denuo, a consulting arm of advertising agency Publicis Groupe. Carriers are "loath to separate device from service. They're loath to let third-party applications play on their proprietary network."

If Google succeeds in opening up the industry it will be the biggest thing the search company has done in the past couple of years, said Stephen Arnold, author of The Google Legacy and a new book, Google Version 2.0: The Calculating Predator. "The phone companies 'don't understand the business Google is in, and now they're talking to them!'" he said.

And the company could very well have a trump card to play, if it follows through on its interest in the 700MHz US spectrum auction scheduled for January 2008.

Can Google really be a mobile software developer, search engine, application house and wireless carrier? We might soon find out.

CNET News.com's Stephen Shankland and Elinor Mills contributed to this article.