Yesterday’s New York Times says, “First Google Phone Will Be Announced Sept. 23.”
The phone is expected to become a challenger to other high-end phones like Apple’s iPhone and the BlackBerry line of devices made by Research In Motion. Other manufacturers and cell phone carriers are expected to introduce Android-based phones in the coming months.
Google is promoting Android phones as a way to ensure that its services, as well as other services that may use its advertising system, are available on a broad range of mobile phones. But Google also stands to benefit from the popularity of devices like the iPhone, whose PC-like Internet browser has greatly increased the likelihood that its owners will conduct Web searches on their phones.
It also has a piece on trading in iPhone applications and another on Kleinert Perkins, one of the largest, best-known and most influential venture capital firms, starting an iPhone-specific blog.
Meanwhile, banks collapsing, the government rescuing a huge insurance company . . . it’s a good time to be in the new phone business.
And The New York Times gets it . . . today it announced a new column called Phone Smart.
Tim Berry is the founder and chairman of Palo Alto Software and Bplans.com. Follow him on Twitter @Timberry.
