The much anticipated Google phone is scheduled to make its debut September 23rd on the T-Mobile network. The phone will be co-branded with Google, HTC (phone manufacturer), and T-Mobile. It will be interesting to see how all of these brands get represented. The phone will have a retail price of $199. The Wall Street Journal quotes T-Mobile officials as saying the phone will include “aggressively priced” data plans. It will be the first phone to run Android, an operating system developed by Google and its partners. Google hopes that other carriers, including Sprint, will follow T-Mobile’s lead with Android powered phones of their own. Verizon Wireless is being somewhat coy about their Android plans, and AT&T has its wagon hitched to the iPhone for now.

It’s already clear that the Google phone won’t reach the mania achieved by the iPhone and 3G iPhone launches. Some will interpret that lack of comparable buzz as evidence of a failed launch. But I think such analysis misses the point. Google is less interested in selling handsets, and more interested in pushing a mobile operating system “open source” movement. Conceivably, success at such a movement draws more people to the mobile web – and more people on the mobile web leads to more demand for search. Google doesn’t care whether consumers access that search through Android, Symbian, or other mobile operating platforms. What matters most is more demand for search, and Google wins in that environment regardless. The mobile web is the next frontier for Google's growth. Android is simply a means to a bigger end. Google co-founder Larry Page’s quote in a recent CNET post confirms this approach, "As people get better phones, they do 20 times more searches."

There is little doubt that the future of telecom lies in wireless. Just ask Randall Stephenson, CEO of AT&T. "Wireless is the core of the business now," Stephenson told USA Today in a recent article. This future reality does not mean the death of wireline telephony. Wireline circuits will simply migrate to IP enabled broadband pipes which deliver content of all types, voice included. But wireless connectivity will soon become the status quo. This ongoing migration to wireless ubiquity creates huge operational challenges and perhaps, glorious business opportunities. Those potential opportunities are not going unnoticed by non traditional wireless service providers, who are increasingly eyeing the ownership of wireless spectrum as a hedge for the future. We often forget that the cable industry is sitting on a wide swath of wireless spectrum (unrelated to their Pivot Wireless joint venture) gained from the last AWS spectrum auction. The upcoming 700 Mhz auction has the rumor mill ablaze, with Google making much noise about their interest. The latest potential competitor to the party now is Apple, who is rumored to be eyeing 700 Mhz spectrum. EBay/Skype are also rumored to be considering adding spectrum assets to their fold. The key word in all of this is rumor. We won’t know the reality of these interests until the scheduled January 2008 auction. But it’s intriguing to speculate on the potential of these technology innovators stirring up an already intense competitive environment.

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