6 November 2007
While the hotly-rumoured 'Gphone' - a new handset from Google to compete in the telecoms market - might remain an internet rumour, the firm has nevertheless made its formal first move into the mobile phone market yesterday.
Bosses at the world's most popular search engine revealed the firm's new operating software for mobile phones at its San Francisco base - a move which the New York Times said "is likely to revolutionize the telecoms industry as thoroughly as the PC changed the computing world in the early 1980s".
It is anticipated that Google's mobile phone platform will move handsets in the direction of being mini-mobile computers, rather than simply communications devices.
Policy Chief at the Federal Communications Commission Robert Pepper, told the newspaper: "The Internet is going mobile and it's not just top down, its one-to-one and many-to-many all at the same time, and that's what the Google guys get."
Among the mobile phone makers signed up by the internet firm to carry its software are Motorola and Samsung.
Service providers T-Mobile and Sprint - as well as technology companies Intel and Qualcomm - are also on board for the new 'GPhone' software.
It is anticipated that the new mobile platforms will be on sale towards the end of 2008.