Google taking on Apple in cellphone market - washingtonpost.com

Google phone would break industry model
In challenge to Apple, plans call for it to operate on any network

By Cecilia Kang
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, December 15, 2009

With Google's disclosure over the weekend that it would launch its own
cellphone, the online giant is staking claim to a piece of the
fast-growing mobile marketplace and making a direct challenge to Apple's
swift rise in the sector.

Google said in a corporate blog on Saturday that it has developed a
phone based on its Android mobile operating system and distributed it to
employees to try out. Soon after, pictures of the phone surfaced on the
Twitter feeds of employees and outside bloggers with details that the
device would be launched next month and sold directly to consumers. The
new phone would be capable of operating on any network, according to a
source close to the company who was not authorized to comment publicly.

Google's approach would run counter to the current practices of handset
makers and carriers that partner up in exclusive deals to market and
sell phones, and provide mobile service. AT&T, for instance, has been
the sole provider of service for Apple's iPhone since the device was
launched in 2007. Sprint tied up with Palm for its Pre smart phone
earlier this year, and Verizon exclusively runs several versions of
Research in Motion's BlackBerry.

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Don