Students, experts ready for latest Google toy- a phone

Students obsessed with Gmail, Google Calendar and Gchat will soon be able to add the "Google phone" to their arsenal.

T-Mobile will launch the G1 phone - also known as the "Google phone" - on Oct. 22. And though analysts don't expect the same frenzy that accompanied the release of Apple's iPhone in June 2007, many say Google's strategy of open software may transform the wireless industry.

Unlike the software for the iPhone, which can only be used on that phone, the G1's operating system - called Android- is configured so that it can work on multiple phone types.

"It's hard to imagine the G1 creating the level of excitement we saw when the iPhone came out, but that's not the point," Legal Studies assistant professor Kevin Werbach, who specializes in technology and communications, wrote in an e-mail.

"For Google, this is a long-term effort to transform the wireless industry," he wrote. "Google's goal is to get lots of phones supporting Android, lots of customers using it. How well the G1 does may or may not be representative."

Google is a part of the Open Handset Alliance, a group of more than 30 technology and mobile companies whose goal is to "offer consumers a richer, less expensive and better mobile experience," according to the Alliance's Web site.

Companies that are members of the Open Handset Alliance are interested in developing handsets and technologies that use Android software.

Wharton sophomore Josh Wais worked at a wireless technology company called Qualcomm - one of the members of the Open Handset Alliance - and said Google's "push toward openness" is already forcing wireless carriers to reconsider their older business models.

"The idea of openness is that you should be able to do whatever you want, and everyone is pushing to it," said Wais, who has used the Android software.

He added that wireless carriers were more reluctant to join in because an open system doesn't allow them to lock consumers into that company's specific products and software.

Because Android is free, Google doesn't get any money for downloaded copies of the software.

Wais said Google will likely make back its money both through Google searches that are performed from the phones as well as from consumers purchasing applications.

Android users can download applications through Android Market, which is similar to the iPhone's App Store. Anyone can write an application, but unlike the App Store, those applications aren't subject to an approval process.

Wharton sophomore Kalyani Ravi said she thinks that although the G1 isn't as aesthetically appealing as the iPhone, there are plenty of things that Penn students will like about it.

"It just looks like a normal cell phone, but the keypad will be really useful even though it has a touch screen as well," she said, adding that students would find the Android software's free price tag attractive.

Though the applications are free, the G1 phone will cost $180 and customers will also have to purchase a two-year T-mobile contract.

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