Google Announces Mobile Platform, Not Phone

There’s no Gphone. No shiny-screened iPhone killer. Instead, what Google announced today was a mobile platform. Code-named “Android” (huh??), the platform includes an operating system, user interface, and applications. A collective sigh from letdown bloggers shuddered through the blogosphere today. According to the Official Google Blog’s post on this, they think the platform they announced “is more significant and ambitious than a single phone,” which begs the question, “have they seen the iPhone?”

Sure, sure…the Google mobile platform was developed in cooperation with the Open Handset Alliance, which includes 30 tech and mobile leaders like Motorola, Qualcomm, HTC and T-Mobile, which means the Google platform won’t be tied to any one device and you won’t have to switch carriers to use it. It makes sense. It fits with their goal of “providing access to information to users wherever they are,” as they say.

However, I wanted this:

Consumers won’t see the Google platform in action until the second half of 2008.