One of the big stories in recent weeks has been the much-discussed Google phone. After a flurry of miscommunications, language issues, and uncertainty surrounding Google’s intentions, it appears that Google is finally speaking with one voice in saying they aren’t working on a mobile phone. That’s not to say they aren’t working on becoming bigger players in the mobile phone industry, though:

[Google employee Richard] Kimber said Google was keen on porting its search and other technologies to mobile devices, but it was not interested in entering the crowded handset market, as Apple has recently done with its iPhone.

It seems like hardly a day goes by that there isn’t word of a new project being worked on by Google (just how many programs do they have in beta, anyway?), but it would be a major change in Google’s strategy to be working on hardware. While Apple has never built a phone before, they do have relationships with the companies necessary to make it happen, and they also know how to manage the production of such a device. Google is certainly not incapable of such a venture–Microsoft makes quite a bit of hardware these days, after all–but it would be an ambitious first project.

Instead of creating the actual handset, producing a platform to be licensed to existing handset makers is likely a more enticing possibility. Thus far, Google has been very adept at working against Microsoft’s dominance in a very insidious manner, avoiding direct competition in the operating system, browser, or office suite space, yet still making their services indispensable to millions of people. Microsoft has had some success in the smartphone space, but doesn’t have nearly the entrenched position it does with the PC. This could be Google’s opportunity to launch a platform where the field is more open, and then use that success as leverage to expand beyond mobile phones.

A whole platform from Google is far from an inevitability, though. It could simply be that Google wants to avoid the fray altogether, leaving it to other companies to bloody themselves competing over hardware and operating systems, while they simply form partnerships with companies interested in offering Google’s services. Revenue has hardly been a problem for Google, and they can still add greatly to that just by working with handset makers and carriers to offer something like Google Maps.

As for Apple, it could be a sigh of relief to hear that Google is, at least not openly, venturing into hardware. Competition will be fierce enough without another substantial company jumping in. Considering the high percentage of (Windows-powered) Treo owners that are also Mac users (and are thus more likely to switch to the iPhone), a Google phone platform could mean more trouble for Palm and Microsoft or Research in Motion than Apple, but it could still pose a problem. Google would be unlikely to cooperate on offering a service like Google Maps on the iPhone if they’re simultaneously trying to launch their own platform.

The ideal scenario would be Apple and Cingular working with Google on exclusivity deals, making them the sole provider of certain Google services on mobile phones. Considering the cooperation demonstrated between Apple and Google, this isn’t out of the realm of possibility, either. More likely is that the companies work together, but in a non-exclusive capacity (these are progressive companies, they can handle an open relationship). While this is not the best conceivable scenario for Apple and the iPhone, it’s certainly one everyone can live with, as it keeps the playing field level.

Just what effect Google has on the success of the iPhone remains to be seen, but the evidence so far suggests that they at least won’t do anything to seriously threaten its success.

Filed under: iPhone News, Opinion