Google and Verizon to Make Android Phones: Bad News for Apple
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A new partnership between Verizon Wireless and Google will apparently result in the creation of smartphones that will employ Google’s Android operating system and the company’s very own Internet applications. These yet-to-be released phones are already being considered major competition to the iPhone, whose popularity so far has been unsurpassed.
It was recently announced that Verizon will release two new Android phones in October and November of 2009, and that Google may even be planning to venture off on their own. If this is true, it's very likely that Google's Android phone will be seen as disruptive to the wireless status quo, but that's not stopping the company from reportedly moving ahead with their plans.
According to Ashok Kumor, a Northeast Securities analyst who has spoken to Google's design partners about their plan, Google is already working with a smartphone manufacturer to launch their own brand of phones. Kumar even went as far as to say that the phones will be made available this year through retailers other than Telcos, which is the telephone company that provides telecommunications services such as telephony and data communications.
A Google-specific phone as described by Kumor would prove to be drastically different from previous devices because of its unique unlocked nature. Many of the most popular smartphones currently available are tied to single carriers, which require complicated service contracts related to pricing and services. According to rumors, a Google phone that isn't tied to a specific carrier won't require any of these traditional contractual obligations.
If this is true, and Google's phone gets released later this year, the search giant will be considered major competition against Apple's iPhone, Research in Motion's BlackBerry devices, and Motorola's upcoming Android phone, which will reportedly be called "Zeppelin." Though it's all speculation at this point and Google has admitted to nothing more than their partnership with Verizon, it wouldn't be the biggest surprise in the world if the popular company decided to create an Android phone. Early last year the company pledged to "bring a new generation of open-standard mobile Internet devices to consumers."
Originally, it seemed as if Google wanted to avoid giving their Android technology to a conventional provider such as Verizon, as most carriers are very controlling of the features and applications allowed on their phones. If the rumors are true and Google is deciding to release a phone independently and outside of their Verizon partnership, it would put Google in a very unique position not ever experienced by a company: they could offer a device that lets users determine its functions.
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