Google engineering VP Vic Gundotra, right, presumably sending reports back to the Android team from just before yesterday's announcement of the latest iPhone version by Apple CEO Steve Jobs. Can you suggest a better caption? Do so in the comments. The best one will become the new headline. Yesterday's winner: "Tumblr? I just met her!" by fairoak. (Photo by Vasanth Sridharan)
Already "walled off" from any discussion of Apple's iPhone, Google CEO Eric Schmidt could see his role on Apple's board of directors further diminish. Google's interest in wireless hardware powered by Android software and its investment in Clearwire's WiMax network pose apparent conflicts with Apple's interest in 3G iPhones. [BusinessWeek] (Photo AP/Michel Euler)
For an understanding of why Google's Android operating system for cell phones — the basis of the still-nonexistent Googlephone — is set to flop, look no further than one of its biggest advocates, T-Mobile. At a wireless conference in Redwood City, T-Mobile executive Joe Sims promised an "avalanche" of Android phones sometime between October and December. But what's going to be so special about these phones, besides their Google OS? T-Mobile's phones "will be tailored to the consumer, and the consumer, in turn, will tell the carriers what they expect their mobile devices to be able to do," a Dow Jones reporter paraphrased Sims. One hopes something was lost in transcription there, because it sure sounds like T-Mobile doesn't know how to market its phones, and are hoping its customers will come up with ideas. Buying an iPhone, which at least is made by someone with a clear idea of what it's good for: that seems easier.
There's no real market for applications written for Google's Android cell-phone operating system — the sad, software-only remnant of the abortive quest for a Googlephone — but Google's trying hard to create an artificial one. Participants in Google's Android Developer Challenge submitted 1,788 Android programs. In May, Google will award 50 semifinalists $25,000 apiece. Eventually Google will pay out $5 million in prizes, or about $2,800 per entry, according to quick bit of math. Why not actually make a Googlephone? That seems easier. (Photo by Kai Hendry)
Lobbying pays: AT&T has donated $200,000 to Congressmen Cliff Stearns and Fred Upton (pictured), as well as John Shimkus. All three are members of a House telecommunications subcommittee, and have criticized Google's participation in an FCC auction of wireless spectrum. They claim the government would have made more money had Google not lobbied for rules that lift restrictions on what kind of devices can use the spectrum, smoothing the way for the launch of "Googlephones" which run Google's Android software. All of which would be less of a theoretical inside-the-Beltway debate if Google actually had a Googlephone on the market.
Google has pushed back the deadline for its $10 million Android programming contest to April. The jackpot will go to the developer who comes up with the best application for Google's cell-phone operating system. Google says the reason is that it's made updates to Android, and it wants to let programmers take advantage of them. But doesn't it seem equally likely that Google hadn't gotten enough submissions?
Venture capital has found its way onto Google's open mobile platform, Android. W2Pi Studios, the company behind WiFiArmy, a videogram written for Android, is set to take $5 million in funding, a company source tells Valleywag. Company president Peter Whatanitch explains the game's premise in the video above. "This game allows you to play a first-person shooter anytime, anywhere." Charming! Anyway, it sounds a lot like Dodgeball to us. And we know how that worked out in Google's hands.
Google's mobile operating system Android is a bad idea, Apple CEO Steve Jobs told the New York Times after yesterday's keynote at Macworld. "Having created a phone, it's a lot harder than it looks," he said. Larry Page, Sergey Brin, and Eric Schmidt should be happy with the apps they've created for the iPhone. "I actually think Google has achieved their goal without Android, and I now think Android hurts them more than it helps them. It's just going to divide them and people who want to be their partners."
Want to know what the Googlephone fuss is about? WhatsOpen.com, the first app to be built for Googlephones, has just launched in beta. The site looks much like the screenshots leaked to Valleywag last month: It's a local search engine which mashes up Google Maps with a directory of store's operating hours. Want a late-night coffee, or beer at 3 a.m.? WhatsOpen tells you which stores to go to. Here's a screenshot of the search results.
We heard a rumor that Google executive Marissa Mayer, scheduled to appear at a Churchill Club event tonight in Palo Alto, may be demonstrating a cell phone running Google's Android operating system — that is, the fabled Googlephone. We'll believe it when we see it — so by all means, if you're going, snap a photo and send it in.
When it comes to wireless, Google is full of hot air. But Verizon Wireless has now popped Google's bubble. By next year, CEO Lowell McAdam declares, Verizon Wireless will open its network to any devices that meet its technical standards. An important note: Verizon's standards, not Google's. Google will likely squawk at this. It's complained before, specifically about Verizon, and found willing ears among Silicon Valley's hopelessly naive press corps.
Bug Labs, a startup making an open-source mobile gadget, is releasing its first "Bug" prototype next month. Founder Peter Semmelhack tells Silicon Alley Insider that the device can run any operating system, including Google's barely released Android OS — the project many mistook for the launch of a Googlephone. By Google's definition, any phone running Android is a Googlephone. So if you want to call the Bug a Googlephone? We're totally okay with that. (Photo by Silicon Alley Insider)
"I don't know of a single developer who has had his/her hands on Android," says Valleywag honorary staffer Robert Scoble, referring to the open-source software development kit for Google's new phone platform. I don't know of any, either. That's odd, because ponytailed hackers usually make it a point to tell me about these things as a way to rub their snob status in the face of the hated, hated mainstream media. Sorry, where was I? Oh yeah: If you're actually working with Android code and aren't at Google, drop me a line.
WhatsOpen, the stealth startup behind the first known Googlephone app, is quietly admitting to people in the industry that it is using Google's Android OS for cell phones for its mobile app which tells users which nearby stores are open. As the wags at Gizmodo noted, the killer app for Android is figuring out where to get a beer at 3 a.m. Other than that, WhatsOpen's secretive founders are anxious to downplay their ties to Google. After Google billionaire Sergey Brin was spotted asking a WhatsOpen executive to keep his company under wraps, people widely expected a noiseless Google takeover.
Remember WhatsOpen.com, the stealth search startup that piqued Google cofounder Sergey Brin's interest last month? Brin was so intrigued he told the founders to keep the company hush-hush. Now, however, a source has leaked screenshots of WhatsOpen's secret project. The company has a Web application which shows users nearby stores and their operating hours — "what's open." Click to viewBut I'm told by a source that WhatsOpen has also written the first wireless app for Google's new Android operating system. (You may know Android better as the software behind the still-mythical Googlephone.) Demo screenshots after the jump.
For Android, there is no built-in business model ... The answer might not make sense, but basically, this is all going to be open sourced. For us, strategically, it's key to have strong support in the mobile world ... As far as monetizing it — we're more focused on delighting users before we figure out how to throw ads in front of them.
We believe that Android will give many phone makers their first access to software with full web browsing functionality, which the iPhone already offers ... Simply put, in our opinion, Apple is confident that its iPhone operating system is a compelling one, and developers will want to build applications for the iPhone ... [I]f the platform successfully proliferates to many devices and form factors, we do not believe Google will develop a mobile phone (hardware) product ... If the platform does not successfully proliferate, then Google may be forced to release a handset that exemplifies and displays the power of Android.
