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Gphone Rumors Hint at Broad Mobile Strategy


By Alex Handy
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October 23, 2007 —  (Page 1 of 3)
Google, the darling of Silicon Valley, could soon become the belle of the mobile service provider ball. According to unnamed sources inside Google, the company is embarking on a strategy to join its nationwide fiber optic networks, the 700MHz spectrum, an x86-based handset and a brand-new JavaScript engine as a platform underlying its "Gphone" project. But even without these leaked details, Google's broader business moves are already telegraphing the individual pieces of the puzzle.

Specifically, Google CEO Eric Schmidt's bold offer to purchase the entire 700MHz spectrum in the upcoming FCC auction hints at a broader wireless play from the company. Although his initial bid of US$4.6 billion for the whole kit and kaboodle will likely fall short of the final price for this chunk of the ether, Schmidt’s willingness to commit such a large amount of Google's money to wireless spectrum shows just how much the company is banking on a mobile future.

Why should any of this matter to a software developer? JavaScript's importance to business is apparent, and Google's moves indicate a conformity to norms, not a move toward original standards and wild new environments. Java developers would almost certainly rely on the successful Google Web Toolkit to translate their applications into JavaScript, and Microsoft-based developers shouldn't have trouble adapting to an x86 environment. Perhaps Google's smartest move of all is giving developers an environment and programming language they already know. However, if the company's phone were to include this new JavaScript engine in an x86-based Gphone, it would wade into a marketplace already ripe with iPhone-compatible JavaScript applications and oodles of x86-knowledgeable developers. Repeated attempts to reach a Google spokesperson for comment went unanswered.

But sources inside Google corroborate rumors of the combination of the company's large holdings of unused cross-U.S. fiber optic networks. The company has not been talkative about its purchases of these networks, but various clues have cropped up that Google has been amassing long-haul network capabilities since the end of the first dot-com bubble. From the company's new data centers in remote regions of Oregon to its help-wanted ads seeking employees with experience in negotiating for dark fiber purchases, sources are simply confirming information that has been trickling out slowly over the past five years.




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