Yesterday Google announced that they'd be setting up a new venture called "Open Handset Alliance" their partners? Everyone too lazy to make their own open or closed mobile platform. Companies with their own mobile platforms (Apple, Symbian, Palm, Microsoft) made some comments regarding Google's encroachment onto their territory.
Microsoft
"It really sounds that they are getting a whole bunch of people together to build a phone and that's something we've been doing for five years"
Nokia:
"We don't see this as a threat."
Palm:
"If Google was not involved the industry would have just yawned and rolled over. We take it seriously but we are the ones with real phones, real phone platforms and a wealth of volume built up over years."
Apple:
"We have a great relationship with Google and this doesn't change anything. They are certainly an important partner for iPhone."
To clarify, Google isn't making phones, but rather building an interface/OS for other phone manufacturers to use. The first Android OS equipped phones won't be making their way to us until sometime in 2008, but the problem I see is that there isn't a revenue model attached to it -- the Android OS will be open source, so Google won't be monetizing it directly, it's definitely another step for Google into getting onto your machine and using their systems.
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