• CNET News.com, Wednesday, November 7, 2007 11:45 AM

Google clearly aims to reform the mobile wireless industry with Android--its new mobile software platform--and the so-called Open Handset Alliance, by making the mobile Web experience more like surfing the traditional Internet. To be sure, it's a worthy, lofty goal--but it won't be so easy, says CNET.

For one thing, Android, still more than a year away, will be one of many mobile operating systems on the market. For the Open Handset Alliance to be effective, Android will have to become nearly ubiquitous. Even if the Google OS is far and away the best offering on the market, it will still take time (years, even) for user adoption to catch up. Also, AT&T and Verizon Wireless, the two biggest carriers in the U.S., have yet to sign up for Google's open -market initiative-although it has struck deals with T-Mobile and Sprint Nextel to make Android-compatible phones.

Interestingly, Verizon didn't sound all that opposed to the Open Handset Alliance. "We haven't ruled out joining this group," Jeffrey Nelson, a spokesman for the company, told CNET. "And we welcome the support of Google, handset makers and others for our goal of providing more open development of applications on mobile handsets." Nevertheless, analysts concede that success is still several years away: "Even if there is a tidal wave of new devices using the Android platform, they will still represent a relatively small portion of the overall market," said Charles Golvin, an analyst with Forrester Research. "I think [the Open Handset Alliance] will build slowly over time."

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