Google yesterday announced the creation of the Open Handset Alliance -- a group of 34 companies that will create a package of free software that includes everything needed to run a cell phone:
an open-source operating system, a Web browser, and applications including maps, e- mail, and video-sharing and -viewing tools.
The Alliance includes some of the biggest names in tech,
including chipmakers Intel and Qualcomm, handset maker Motorola, wireless carriers T-Mobile and Sprint Nextel, and e-commerce provider eBay. The new platform will be known not as Gphone,
as had been widely expected, but Android -- as in a machine made to resemble a human -- after a company acquired by Google in 2005.
The creation of the Alliance reflects a sea change in
the way cell phones are built. Cell-phone carriers and handset makers are slowly losing their grip on mobile-phone design, and third-party developers are gaining sway over the features and
tools used by the world's billions of cell-phone subscribers.
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