Calling all mobile services

T-Mobile, a little fish in the large pond of wireless phone providers, is planning to release a new phone next year by teaming with a bigger fish... Google. The T-Mobile phone will use a software platform that Google has been developing over the last few years.

This summer, there was a lot of talk and speculation about Google moving into the mobile business with a so-called "gPhone" or "Google Phone." But the company wasn't really creating a phone, it was developing the technology that would improve the capabilities of other companies' wireless phones. However, many mobile phone companies initially shied away from teaming with the Web search giant.

Why? You would think teaming with, what is today, a household name would be a no-brainer. Still larger wireless companies didn't bite. Was this because of Microsoft's presence in the mobile phone industry with its Windows Mobile platform? Perhaps, but perhaps the wireless companies were just waiting for someone else to be Google's guinea pig.

The platform is named Android, after the company Google acquired in 2005 to gain insight into wireless technology and start development. Google also is part of the Open Handset Alliance, a group of technology companies committed to open-source strategies. As part of this alliance, Google's mobile technology will be freely available and customizable. What does Google have to gain in this wireless venture - ad sales, for one. A recent New York Times article about the Google venture says , "the initiative is an ambitious push to take its overwhelming dominance of advertising on PC screens onto wireless devices. The company has been frustrated at the limited availability of its services on mobile phones, whose features and software are largely controlled by carriers and handset makers."

Smart move in my opinion. I took a peak at a demo of Google's new wireless interface posted in a NY Times blog. The capabilities are quite amazing.

As key industry players, like Google, enter the scene to develop wireless technology, the mobile world seems certain to be the next major venue for Web users... and the days of the wired Internet are surely numbered.