Google has started the 34-member Open Handset Alliance to make free software that will help cellphones run applications.
(Paul Sakuma/Associated Press/File 2007)
Google Inc. will work with Sprint Nextel Corp., T-Mobile USA Inc., and others on a cellphone operating system and applications that may change how consumers find stores and download files.
Google, owner of the world's most popular Internet search engine, started the 34-member Open Handset Alliance to make free software that will help the phones run applications. The software is open to any programmer.
By offering code anyone can use, Google is seeking to expand beyond Web searches on computers and to break the hold big phone companies have over what applications work on which devices. New products may include location-based advertisements for shops and movie theaters, or mobile access to services such as eBay Inc., analysts said.
"This creates the foundation for anything you can imagine," said John Jackson, an analyst at Yankee Group in Boston. "If it works in practice, and we really don't know that it will yet, it should be a catalyst for innovation."
Google's operating system, code-named Android, is based on open-source Linux software, allowing it to work for an array of phone makers and service providers.
Software developers can build applications to run with Mountain View, Calif.-based Google's program, enabling partners to customize services for their subscribers.
Android phones will be available by the second half of next year, Google said.
The accord would boost Google's advertising revenue from mobile phones, which outsold personal computers by more than 4 to 1 last year. For phone companies Sprint and T-Mobile, the accord may bolster sales of online services and give them an edge over larger rivals AT&T Inc., the exclusive US carrier for Apple Inc.'s iPhone, and Verizon Wireless.
"Sprint is struggling to add customers," said Christopher Larsen, an analyst at Credit Suisse in New York. "Maybe this is the thing that turns the tide."
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