Developments in the World of Mobile Phones

This week brought some big developments to the world of mobile phones - developments that will have impact on the landscape in the coming years.

Dell announced a smartphone that use Google's Android op system on the AT&T network. This marks a big win for Google as they will now have phones with their software on all 4 major US cellular networks. (Verizon also announced its first Android phone this week).

Google is well on its was to extending its reach from search on PCs to enabling applications and devices in the growing smartphone area (estimated to be 90% of all phones sold in the US in 5 years). The return for Google is still unclear, but it now looks like Android is the next-best platform to iPhone for phone app developers.

Verizon is still waiting for Apple to decide if it will make iPhone available on Verizon. Verizon has held its own even without the iPhone, but would do much better with it. Verizon's 3G network is significantly better than AT&T and a Verizon option would hurt AT&T. (The new ads comparing Verizon’s 3G coverage against AT&T’s finally bring some real-world data to the debate about whose network is the better).

So where is Microsoft in all of this? Well they too unveiled the Windows Phone software. Improvements have been made for web browsing and touch gesturing, but analysts think this may not be enough to compete with Apple and Google. And the Windows Marketplace' hundreds of apps pales in comparison with iTunes' 85k.

And on the VoIP front; AT&T has finally approved Skype usage over it's 3G network (not just when in a wifi hotspot). VoIP on 3G networks could have big implications on wireless carriers’ voice business and it will be interesting to see how this evolves. Apple still has not approved the Google Voice app – although they say it has not been rejected.