Is the gPhone really close at hand?
Google is starting to remind me of Toyota. They seem to have their own Google Production System; a system and mindset that lets them produce one interesting product after another.
I saw this with Toyota and the Detroit auto companies in the 1990's. Toyota kept increasing quality (and profits), even with American workers, because of their mindset and systemic approach. Competitors would look at the factories and have no clue why Toyota was winning ("looks the same to me!?") or even how to fight them.
It seems like Google and Apple are having the same effect with tech products today. They both clearly have a system which produces consistent results while their competitors are left shaking their heads and struggling to understand how to keep up.
Anything Google and Apple can do to demolish the cell phone industry will be a win for consumers. (And this kind of creative destruction is fun to watch :)
Can a Google Phone Connect With Carriers?
October 30, 2007
Google Inc. is close to unveiling its long-planned strategy to shake up the wireless market, people familiar with the matter say. The Web giant's ambitious goal: to make applications and services as accessible on cellphones as they are on the Internet.
In a move likely to kick off an intense debate about the future shape of the cellphone industry, Google wants to make it easier for cellphone customers to get a variety of extra services on their phones -- from maps to social-networking features to video-sharing. To get its way, however, the search giant will have to overcome resistance from wireless carriers and deal with potentially thorny security and privacy issues.
Google is trying to loosen the grip wireless carriers have over the software and services consumers can access on cellphones. Carriers have considerable clout, especially in the U.S., where they control distribution of phones to consumers through their retail stores.
