Google's OS dreams calling on Linux

Can Google's application development prowess be transformed into a next-generation mobile operating system?

It seems increasingly likely that Google, the ubiquitous tech company, is about to throw its hat into the race to develop the next big mobile device. Google's no gadget-maker, but it does develop quite a bit of software, and reports have been building that the company is relatively close to releasing the Gphone. (Our style department says we have to spell it that way.)

Most people who have wandered onto the Internet in the past couple of years are familiar with Google. The company's various applications from Gmail and Google Docs to Google Desktop and the Google Toolbar are likewise familiar to lots of PC users. When it comes to smart phones, Google Maps is almost a must-have application, and it comes standard with the iPhone.

So Google's got experience in taking applications built for a PC and moving them over to a smart phone, which will be a key part of transforming smart phones into true mobile computers. A mobile operating system, however, is an entirely different undertaking.

It's very much a wide-open race to develop the next advanced mobile operating system. Symbian has the lead worldwide thanks to its close partnership with Nokia, the largest shareholder in the company. Windows Mobile is the second most widely used smart-phone operating system, according to Forward Concepts, and Linux is the third.

According to reports, Google wants to expand on that last category with its rumored mobile OS. The Gphone would be based on Linux and supported by advertising, which to many techies probably sounds like the ultimate Silicon Valley marriage made in hell. Try to forget, for a moment, about using a smart phone inundated with advertising messages and think about the implications of a Google-developed smart phone operating system.

It's still the very early days for this type of computing. Symbian and Microsoft have staked out opposing positions, but no company with the size and clout of Google has thrown its support behind the Linux development efforts for mobile computing.

Mobile phone makers are intrigued by Linux because of the constrained memory and power requirements of mobile computers and the ability to customize a Linux base for their products. Lots of work has already been done to make Linux modular, or to create building blocks that can be mixed and matched depending on what is desired. Tomihisa Kamada of Access told me earlier in the year that carriers and phone makers also like the idea of having their own branded interface on the phone, rather than relying on Microsoft and Symbian's branded operating system. If you go that route, that means you have to differentiate your products mostly on hardware, and that can be tricky.

But established phone makers and carriers looking for an answer to the iPhone are finding it hard to bet on a single Linux provider. Palm is floundering, with the recent news that the Linux-based version of Palm OS has been delayed again. Access, the company that acquired former Palm OS developer Palmsource, isn't faring much better. The folks at OpenMoko have gotten some buzz, but when First International Computer is your only hardware partner, you've got an uphill fight ahead of you. MontaVista has had some success with Motorola, and Wind River has been doing some interesting work, but are they in the best position to persuade the world to take a chance on their products?

Google, on the other hand, is Google. They've got open-source credibility, they've got mobile phone pioneers on board with their acquisition of Android in 2005, and some of the best and brightest engineers that Silicon Valley has to offer (not to mention enough cash to fund four or five internal projects that might have produced the eventual winner). As mobile phones start to deliver the same Internet experience as a PC, mobile search will be a vital application.

Could Google be the next mobile operating system company? It's more prepared than you might think.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

The part that trips me up is the notion of an advertising-supported Gphone, something also reported by BusinessWeek as a key part of Google's aims for this market, along with its intention to go after the 700MHz spectrum auction. You're going to have to offer people something pretty special to have ads--even targeted ads--be an integral part of the phone experience, which has thus far been mostly ad free. BusinessWeek thinks Google could be trying to do a television model on your phone, where voice and data minutes are free when the phone user agrees to accept advertising. While that might work to a certain extent, I think people have shown themselves quite willing to pay for things that get around the increasing reach of advertising. The New York Times reported Monday, however, that Google may be forgoing a licensing fee for its software in favor of the advertising model, which could make the software that much more attractive to phone makers.

Despite a lack of smart-phone experience, Google has to be taken seriously in this market. It has the talent and the assets to worm its way into mobile phones, a consumer-friendly brand, and the industry heft to stick around through a few development cycles. The look and feel of any Gphone will be crucial to its chances, and without any solid information to that effect, it's hard to say whether this thing will be a success or a flop. But it's not hard to imagine that Google is making mobile development executives at Symbian, Microsoft, and Palm think long and hard about the current projects they have under development.

UPDATED, 10/9 5:40 p.m: Corrects spelling of Tomihisa Kamada's name.

[imacpwr]

Google: All money, no brains..

Google, the savvy tech investor.

So.. how many gabillion did they blow on YouTube...??

[SteenMachine]

What about Apple?

What impact would a Google/Linux-based OS have on Apple? You mention Symbian, MS, and Palm, but there has to be a view from Cupertino. Could it be that Google and Apple are close partners and that there would be some leverage between the two? Or is it that Apple doesn't have the market share yet to worry about another entrant? Or something else?

[ctfoley]

that doesn't make sense

how'd they get all the money if they don't have any brains

[SteenMachine]

Typo

Apple's stated goal is 1%, not 10%. That would be too bold, even for Steve Jobs.

[ctfoley]

advertising wouldn't have to be intrusive

You know ThePudding, the company that uses what you talk about on phone calls to serve you ads later? Google could buy them. This would be the same as the contextual ads next to Gmail messages. The ads could appear once you ended your call.

[expatincebu]

I'll take one!

Free voice and data in exchange for ads? Count me in. I can ignore the ads the same way I do on TV and Yahoo.

I would LOVE an iPhone (can't afford, hate ATT, and live in asia where it is not yet available) but I will be looking for this device from Google.

[frankly0]

Where's the beef?

I haven't seen a single thing attributed, even in hints, to the Google phone that would make it seem in any way remarkable. I mean, it can do ads? Of what importance is that to the average consumer?

It's hard to escape the conclusion that it's making all this noise about entering the market just because it feels it has to seem to do something really big even if it's got zippo of significance in the works. It has money, and money needs to be spent, and it gets thrown at a project in the mobile space. Problem is, that means nothing with regard to innovation per se.

As Microsoft has pointed out, Google, for all its cachet and all its money, has produced exactly one product that turns a profit: its search engine.

Google seems to be finding out that it can no more buy its way into innovation that people care about than can Microsoft.

[Zaunto]

Linux based smart phone

A Linux based smart phone....

I can't speak for what is happening in the rest of the world, but what we have here in the USA is primarily Windows Mobile and Palm OS (an old version of Palm OS). The fact that Palm is delaying the release of their Linux based OS makes them pretty insignificant in terms of innovation. No one else has stepped up to the plate, so there is a space for Google to jump in and provide a smart phone with an open source OS and possibly also, open source applications. Whoever brings a Linux smartphone to market with the best interface and performance will gain an advantage, particularly if the platform is "open" to third party applications. Apple's desire to keep the iPhone platform closed and iBrick unlocked iPhones won't win them any new fans accept idiots who inhabit Steve Job's "alternate reality field". As long as the Linux phone provide clear call quality and can do more than the pretty iPhone can and the price is right, it will sell.

As far as an advertising model goes, if Google did implement a free minute/free data plan as long as customers view adds, I'd be interested, as long as the phone does what I need it to do- Clear call quality, synch with MS Outlook and third party apps.

[inachu]

GOOGLE OS 3.1

I think a GOOGLE operating system would be better than windows XP.

But an OS totally focused on searching.

THAT WOULD BE COOL!

[tehrani625]

http://www.openmoko.com/products-neo-base-00-stdkit.html

http://www.openmoko.com/products-neo-base-00-stdkit.html

This is the Open sorce iPhone killer right now it is a devlopers version and the consumer version will be out latter this month. Right now it is not tied to any service provider and I don't think that it ever will. Otherwise it woulden't be open.

[pugster]

could change how mobile phone operators work...

All the phone companies are the same, overcharging customers more while 'improving' their incompatible, antiquated infrastructure while not providing enough incentive to use their phone. IE, people have to pay thru the nose to text message. We need google to provide free and hopefully easy to use phones to wipe out the competition.

Linux has been getting alot of buzz lately in the Gphone and MID craze. It would be only a matter of time when you see a convergence between the 2.

[Edwin Hui]

You would never be able to finish this

I find it highly unlikely that Google will make a substantial dent in the mobile phone market in the next 5 years, if ever at all.

This is similiar to the argument that Apple would take the mobile phone industry by storm, and that the IPhone would start a new revolution.

Please. What appears to be a high tech, shiny, advanced mini-computer/phone is actually a dumbed-down pda that has multiple restrictions, and whose features cannot compete against phones costing half as much.

If you come out East a little, the IPhone is not very desirable. In almost every category you can think of, speed, functionality, data transfer, pictures, battery life, size, weight, etc ... the major phone manufacturers blow Apple away.

The IPhone only appeals to the vain, and honestly there are several phone models from multiple manufacturers out there that already have some nice models out that suit that need.

Going back to Google, what is their spin? An open-source solution to phones? I think Google needs to take a step back, in most of their operations, and see what the consumer really needs. The average consumer doesnt care what OS the software runs on, they just want a phone.

It calls. It texts. It can run some simple games. Some downloadable java apps to look up recipes etc.

You have to have the entire ecosystem around the platform before you have a chance to be a major player. Linux? Half the applications I want to run don't support Linux on the desktop, let alone the phone.

Maybe I'm missing part of the picture here, but nothing in this article addresses any consumer wants/needs that I can see.

And from the past practices of Google, your text messages and phonebook will be scanned, and ads will pop up depending on who you call =)

I'm only half kidding too. LOL.