Will Google Lead the Cell Phone Market?

For years, American technology leaders have gotten used to seeing the United States no longer globally technologically dominant. But nowhere is that lack-of-dominance more pronounced than with cell phone technology.


Whether it's interacting with digital signage, communicating with stores about inventory or paying for products directly with phones embedded with RFID (radio-frequency identification) chips, cell phones are proving to be clever and adept communication tools in key parts of Europe and Asia but not here.


With mobile payment, for example, the blame is placed on the U.S. mobile market's structure, with banks much more dominant overseas. Here, it's the cell phone carriers that own the landscape and call the shots.


That's why I saw this week's Google Android news as something that was exciting in its potential to shake up the industry. Trust me, this is one sector that truly needs a lot of shaking up.


The key question, though, is whether Google and the initial 34 members of the Open Handset Alliance will be able to do that shaking. (By the way, can you please tell me how Google could simultaneously use such a cute sci-fi OS name as Android and on the same day also roll out such a dorky and named-by-committee moniker as the Open Handset Alliance? Was this designed to establish some sort of equilibrium on the cool/uncool naming scale?)



Read the full post http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,2213173,00.asp