The Google phone, GPhone, could be the golden key which unlocks the door of the mobile internet. A door which has been locked for much longer than anyone could have predicted.
The word is that the GPhone will have its own operating system optimised for mobile search. When you press the ‘Gbutton’, you will get a screen which will offer you the most popular search options: e.g. geographical directions to places, restaurant recommendations, phone numbers, flight times etc.
These search result pages will also be available to advertisers, just as you have on an ordinary Google search page. This facility will, it is hoped, kick-start that mythological aspiration – advertising to the mobile phone.
Apparently the GPhone designs are all done, and ready to move into mass production. They are likely to be very cheap.
It is the carriers who are, apparently, holding things up, with negotiations on their cut of the advertising revenues.
Traditional wireless carriers, which are already under threat from non-traditional service providers like Skype, and from non-traditional ways of accessing the networks like VOIP over WiFi, are said to have their paranoia further inflamed by the demands of non-traditional phone-makers like Apple with its iPhone, and Google with its GPhone.
Their control over their own networks is being whittled away.
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