An Android in Every Pocket? That's Google's Plan - Page 2

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Right now, there are more than 3 billion mobile phone users worldwide, compared to roughly 1.1 billion, mostly non-mobile, users of the Internet, he said. Add to the mix that only about 200 million PCs are sold yearly, as compared with 1.27 billion phones, and you quickly realize what keeps Google's adrenalin pumping these days.

"Things are clearly shifting," he added. Mobile phones are adopting desktop-level capabilities, and developers are getting mobile applications direct to consumers -- trends that he expects Google to benefit from.

Embracing the open

It's also not merely about creating another new platform for application development, Miner said. Instead, the fact that Android is open source is a key reason why Google expects that it has a real future in mobile phones.

While hardware costs continue to drop, prices associated with software development and licensing -- especially on a mobile platform -- continue to climb. In fact, it is fast approaching 25 percent of the device cost, Miner said. This creates problems for third-world and developing countries, where mobile may be the only voice and data link.

On the other hand, since Android is based on a thin layer of Linux, it is open source, free to use and freely available.

While developers and carriers might have a financial incentive to explore it, Miner said one challenge in getting Android off the ground was ensuring that developers of all of the underlying layers of a mobile OS were on the same page, and equally dedicated to the cause of openness.

That might have been no easy task, considering some of the big egos involved in Android. The effort has attracted the involvement of giants in the mobile carrier and hardware space, like LG Electronics, Motorola, Samsung, Qualcomm, Intel, NTT DoCoMo, Telecom China and a raft of other global players, who have joined the Open Handset Alliance responsible for overseeing Android.

Getting everyone involved to accept openness required skirting the formal task forces and standards-setting bodies typical for such efforts, Miner said.

"Most things done through a collaborative are based on membership level and who is talking loudest in the room," he said. "You end up with an architecture that is not based on the best technology, but on politics."

"It's a very different model for doing open source work and standards-based work," he added.

As for helping to create a so-called "iPhone killer," Miner pointed out that Google and Apple -- while both now offering competing platforms, and both vying for the attention of mobile developers -- have been working together on a number of projects that target mobile applications.

He didn't go into specifics, but Google has long made a number of its services available in iPhone-friendly formats and apps.