May 14th, 2008
Google losing cellphone battle?
In the fight to create a competitor to the Apple iPhone, which defines the Mobile Internet Client (MIC) category, many people put their money on Google and its Open Handset Alliance.
That bet looks shaky today.
RIM has come up with its own “iPhone killer,” the Blackberry Bold (right), and now the competing LiMo Alliance has signed up what should have been Google’s key ally, Verizon, as a member.
You may remember that Google allowed Verizon to win the recent FCC spectrum auction, securing the future of the duopoly. AT&T is already lined up with the iPhone.
Now, with Verizon going with LiMo, Google is stuck. There are only two other wireless carriers out there with a substantial market stake and national footprint — T-Mobile and Sprint.
Neither is in great shape.
T-Mobile is reportedly considering a deal to buy Sprint while Sprint’s own Clearwire deal for WiMax remains speculative. T-Mobile was said to be ready to ship an Android-like phone later this year. Sprint is also an OHA member.
What’s most luring carriers to LiMo, Larry Dignan notes, is its willingness to let them “tweak” the design and create custom user interfaces. Sounds to me like another fleet of carrier-specific phones — nothing open about it.
Verizon made a lot of noise about opening itself up to new designs several months ago, when AT&T’s iPhone success first began breathing down its neck, but with the auction frequencies secured it’s going back to its old ways of doing business.
This leaves Google with two weak partners who may soon become one, and whose own development plans remain rather vague.
Not a good position to be in.
Here’s what I think. These alliance games are not Google’s forte. With all the things it does so well, is the alliance game going to be its undoing?
Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist for 30 years, a tech freelancer since 1983. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
| 05/14/08
