Anyone who was still holding out for an antigravity/invisibility/teleportation device in the form of a forthcoming Gphone is in for a disappointment; Google has (re)confirmed that it will not be producing such a product. But Google did discuss some other mobile plans that it feels are quite important.
“Today’s announcement is more ambitious than any single ‘Google Phone’ that the press has been speculating about over the past few weeks,” said CEO Eric Schmidt in a statement. “Our vision is that the powerful platform we’re unveiling will power thousands of different phone models.”
This platform is known as Android, and should include all the software needed to make those thousands of phones work. It’ll make its public debut in the second half of 2008, and will be “open,” according to Google. And that adjective leads us to the company’s other announcement: the creation of the Open Handset Alliance.
T-Mobile, Motorola, LG, and Motorola are just four of 34 members; in fact, in terms of players in the mobile market, AT&T and Nokia are the only noticeable omissions. The Open Handset Alliance should help keep Android on top of any technological trends, and in an equally important function, keep everything related to Android affordable.
These developments may not have as much of an immediate effect as a Gphone would have had. Still, they are interesting, and as Schmidt said, could be vastly more far-reaching.
