The Google Phone.

The news world is taking the Google phone seriously. With rumors of a Monday launch, the blog world is in a flutter. There is nothing but rumors to work from, so everyone is speculative. One of the more interesting quotes is from a post on GigaOm. Om Malik quotes Hamid Akhavan, CEO of T-Mobile International and CTO of Deutsche Telecom:

"When AT&T and Apple partner on the iPhone or T-Mobile partners with Google on mobile advertising, these new arrangements force the question: “Who pays whom and when?” Billing, payment and content management for broadcast, advertising, search and music all are significantly different. Carriers are having to develop new business models that are compatible with the changing business models of the other key players in the ecosystem. The business models have to be as interoperable as the technologies."

Essentially, there are several new revenue streams both going into and out of cell phone companies. Google wants to make it easier to share the wealth of a big one, advertising. Why share? Because it gives Google a bigger slice of the global search pie. Cell phone search introduces Google to people who can afford a free wireless phone, but not a thousand dollar computer.

However, how and where Google will find the space to display those ads without hampering usability, or even improving usability (like the iPhone does), is beyond me. And it's maybe why they feel the need to create an open cell phone OS.