Hot!! Rumor Google, Verizon talking…

Well I said that Google would launch into to 3G space as soon as the phone opened up to third party development. But I guess I can’t even keep up with the changes. Read This.

Update:

Guess the first question is why Verizon? The answer is culture. The fGTE component of Verizon had a very strong development arm that was carried into the Verizon gameplan. They have a development arm in India as well so they can crank code nearly round the clock. Verizon was able to develop software for FIOS settop boxes than even the makers of the hardware didn’t think possible and couldn’t by the way. The cross development Geekiness would just ooze with both firms collaborating.

But why not AT&T? They’re number #1 right? Well part of it is the Geek factor above. But consider, a phone is a phone is a phone. So if you needed to get going fast you need to partner with innovators. Sorry but that is not AT&T as it stands today. So you go with #2, who by the way stole 1.6m customers from the other carriers. (Yes stole, with a market that is 95% saturated, you only gain marketshare by stealing customers away from somebody else.) You bring in Nokia and Samsung as well. You put the developers in a room, lock the door and slide the pizzas in every once in a while and see what comes out.

Finally, Verizon has very up to date billing system that can accommodate third party charges quite well. A critical piece for Google if they want to carry components of their click thru model into the mobile phone arena. Google will of course wish to pursue premium text content. But I don’t think they will abandon totally their adsense revenue as well.

Yes Dear Reader, a lot of changes for the cellular industy for 2008 are on their way!