Inside The GPhone: What To Expect From Google's Android AllianceInside The GPhone: What To Expect From Google's Android Alliance

This story originally appeared on Nov. 13, 2007.

What exactly will the GPhone -- that vaporous handset that's the subject of furious speculation -- actually look like? In the wake of Google's release of its Android mobile-phone software development platform, there's been lots of chatter, but little hard information. This article is intended to change that.

Google has publicly listed all the partners in its Android project, under the umbrella of the Open Handset Alliance. By intelligently examining what those companies are working on, we can come up with a fact-based projection of the GPhone's probable feature set.

The allies enlisted to work on the device constitutes a mobile software and hardware elite. There are well-known handset makers like Taiwan's HTC, which fields what some consider a better "iPhone" than Apple, in the form of its sleek Touch. And there are beneath-the-radar innovators, like Sweden's TAT. The software developer's clean but funky user-interface designs could propel the GPhone towards the holy grail of a device which is so simple your Grandma could use it.

While the GPhone won't be revolutionary -- the very existence of the Alliance implies it'll use currently available technologies -- it will connect the pieces in pleasantly new ways. Expect the GPhone to be a handset in Web 2.0 clothing, with a friendlier and more integrated approach to mobile computing than even Steve Jobs has envisioned.

Here then are the eight technologies we can expect to see in the GPhone (or phones) due sometime in 2008.

1

A Chic Euro User Interface

If Apple's iPhone has set the high water mark for what the cutting-edge smartphone's screen is supposed to look like, it's safe to infer that the GPhone won't try to top that via imitation. Rather, Google and its partners are likely to go in a different direction.

Their journey might lead to Europe, where some of the most interesting user-interface development work is taking place at little-known, Swedish operation called TAT. That's an acronym for "The Astonishing Tribe." The pretentiousness of the name aside, the mobile-software company's work is focused on pushing the limits of cellphone user-interfaces. TAT says it's worked for SonyEricsson, Samsung, TeliaSonera and Orange.

Judging by the evidence, TAT is highly successful at implementing UIs which aren't good looking just for the sake of being hip, but are also well designed. Mostly, they adhere to the time-honored dictum of good design that "less is more," because they squeeze a function down to its essence and pack onto the screen just enough to make, say, email work well.

TAT's design philosophy can be summed up as being based on the belief that current cellphone UIs are too damn complicated. In a white paper, the company notes: "According to a survey, 85 percent of consumers admitted to being too dumb to access or use mobile services, mainly because of increased device complexity."

Interestingly, TAT boasts that its software is platform-independent. That statement gives additional heft to the idea that whatever the Google phone will be, it'll be less a ground-breaking new platform than an amalgam of today's best-of-breed mobile technologies.

2

Call It The 'GPS' GPhone

Global-positioning system (GPS) technology might be on the cusp for most of America's cellphone users -- Verizon has begun aggressively marketing its availability as an option -- but I'm betting it'll be de rigueur on the GPhone. That's where SiRF Technology Inc. comes in. The Android partner, based in San Jose, Calif., bills itself as a specialist in folding "location-awareness" features into mobile devices.

For our predictive GPhone assessment, the salient fact to note is that SiRF isn't a garden-variety GPS service or software provider. It's heavier duty than that: SiRF offers chips which enable GPS to be hard-wired into the handset. The integrated circuits are also small enough that they won't disturb the svelte profile of the GPhone's case. The SiRFstarIII GSD3t chip measures a scant 3.12-mm by 3.17-mm, at a height of 0.68 mm.

SiRF stresses that its SiRFstar III and SiRF Instant architectures are "power misers." However, adding a standalone integrated circuit into the GPhone to support GPS will clearly stress the already tight power-budget with which its engineers are grappling.

Accordingly, it's probably fair to expect little or no daylight between the GPhone's battery life and that of Apple's iPhone.

3

Really Lightweight Web Browser

Given that U.S. cellphone networks remain too poky for desktop-like Web speeds, the GPhone will be fitted with a browser which loads without the usual, lengthy mobile lag.

This argues for a really lightweight client. That's where Opera comes in, and also where an analysis of the Open Handset Alliance membership roles as a GPhone predictor hits its first stumbling block.

The mobile Opera Mini 4 browser has just been released, to rave reviews. This seems to be just the ticket the GPhone could use as its killer app, since Opera Mini 4 is optimized for quicker scrolling, navigation, and page rendering on mobile handsets.

However, Opera is not an Open Handset Alliance member. Still, that's not necessarily an impediment to the GPhone's adoption of the browser. Consider than an Opera spokesperson coyly refused to tell ZDNet whether the company has been approached to join the Alliance, and added that Opera is "very close to Google."

4

Deep Multimedia Capabilities, Via TI's OMAP

The question of how GPhones will implement multimedia is fascinating, especially the angle of how tightly video and audio will be wound into the platform. Given the iPhone's leadership in this area -- let's face it, Apple's offering is essentially an iPod with a phone attached -- one might reasonably expect the Android partners to pull out all the multimedia stops.

This is where the involvement of Texas Instruments is so intriguing, all the more so because it's difficult to discern exactly what the chip legend is going to be bringing to the GPhone party. Google itself is mostly mum on the topic. The link from the Open Handset Alliance's Web site to TI takes one to a generic page listing cellphone industry resources.

Sure, TI makes basic cellphone RF processors --- the chips which implement the radio features that enable mobile handsets to communicate with service providers like T-Mobile, and thus connect users' calls. So it's possible that TI is enlisted to provide those chips. However, the Open Handset Alliance also includes RF chip maker Marvell.

This leads us to what's perhaps a stretch but also potentially a smarter assessment of the value-add TI offers to Android. Namely, TI is the force behind OMAP, a proprietary multimedia platform, architecture, and processor family. OMAP is arguably the hottest way to turn a next-generation phone into a killer 3G multimedia platform.

From TI's perspective -- the "sell" angle -- OMAP was way ahead of its time and may have taken longer than hoped to catch on. It was launched in the mid-1990s under the moniker "Open multimedia application platform." (Today it's just called OMAP.) It got its first big boost in 1999, when Nokia signed up to adopt the architecture. Now, GPhone deployment would make OMAP ubiquitous beyond TI's wildest dreams.

So just what does OMAP offer? The short answer is, pretty much everything a handset maker needs to field a full range of models from bargain-basement GPhones to feature-stuffed, single-chip cellphones on steroids.

For example, even a basic OMAP331 processor packs into the device an ARM926, which serves as the brains of the cellphone. But the OMAP331 also has an onboard graphics accelerator and support for a multimedia memory stick. To complete the phone's feature set, you have to add a few other external chips, such as an audio amplifier, Bluetooth device, and GPS processor (that's where SiRF, mentioned above, comes in). The total package would be a fairly complete, but cost-constrained, phone.

Move up to the OMAPV1035 and you've got yourself a gold-plated "world phone." The 1035, which supports GSM, GPRS, and EDGE, is billed by TI as "the first fully-integrated digital baseband, RF, and applications processor." Along with the phone stuff, it handles audio and video playback, allowing record and streaming at 30 frames per second.

It's also got a built-in digital camera of up to 3 Mpixels with shot-to-shot delay of less than a second, and onboard 2D and 3D gaming graphics.

Examining the OMAP leads to the inescapable conclusion that devices like the GPhone and iPhone aren't as revolutionary a stretch as we've been led to believe. Advanced smartphone technology is all around us. What's missing is an intelligent way to bolt it all together in an optimally useable package. As well, software to make it all work elegantly has lagged seriously behind the hardware capabilities.

Prior to the iPhone launch, marketing efforts were also sub-par, in that gold-plated smartphones were thought to be coveted mostly by business executives and early tech adopters. What Steve Jobs proved is that making next-gen mobile features cool could seed broad consumer demand. Google and its Android partners are thus capitalizing on emerging vista which its soon-to-be-archrival has helpfully opened up for them.

5

Beyond Voice Dialing: Real Speech Recognition

Can you hear me now? That's something you won't be yelling into your GPhone, if Android partner Nuance Communications Inc. has its way.

Nuance says it VoCon Mobile speech-interface solution handles standard voice dialing, but goes beyond that to support menu navigation in response to verbal commands. VoCon is currently used by Motorola, NEC, LG, and Samsung, among other handset manufacturers.

Beyond speech, Nuance also has its eye on making text messaging so easy any adult can do it. Nuance recently completed its acquisition of Tegic, which makes simplified text-input software for mobile handsets. Tegic's main product is called T9, and it's fitted with the XT9 Mobile Interface. The software supports soft keypads (think "iPhone") and does the fly error-correction required with Chiclets-key typing.

6

iPhone Imitation Department: Gliding Touch-Screen

If there's one feature any GPhone is unlikely to best, it's the iPhone's "slide" touch-screen interface. Not to worry. Open Handset Alliance member Synaptics , forger of intuitive interface solutions using its clear capacitive technology, is the company on the spot.

Synaptics' self-characterization is just a fancy way of announcing that the Santa Clara, Calif., company makes display, which respond to the minute inductive changes induced when they're fiddled with by sweaty fingers.

Judging by one really good looking touch-screen Synaptics has already demonstrated, the GPhone partners are lucky to have the company in their corner. Working with Munich- and Taipei-based industrial-design house Pilotfish, Synaptics has developed next-generation phone concept called Onyx. Although Onyx looks on first glance more like a remote control than a smartphone, its stylistic similarities to the iPhone are obvious.

Interestingly, Synaptics also has the chops to enable the GPhone to compete with Apple on the latter's home turf of playing music and video. That's amply evident by looking at the modern, touch interfaces Synaptics has been called upon to design for Philips, LG, Samsung, and Transcend, for the respective firms' MP3 players.

7

'Push' Search, For VCAST-Like Music And Video

When you first heard about the Google phone, you probably thought the search-engine giant's interest in the platform was to open up mobile as a venue for more customers to type in billions more search terms. At its most basic level, that's true but it's almost too simplistic to be worth anything.

Several points: First, Google is not selling search. It's making money off of ads which surround the searches. Thus, what Google really lusts after is a more efficient way of serving up desired results to its customers. Better search results lead to more precisely targeted ads, and ultimately higher customer click-through rates on those ads. Everybody wins.

A second angle is that, currently, people on search when they decide they need some information. Upping Google's penetration means encouraging more search activity. One way to do this is via "push" search -- showing results to users when they're not explicitly searching. That is, these results appear in the context of other activities, like listening to music.

Indeed, in the future, most searches won't be conducted by users typing in explicit queries. Instead, they'll be in the form of contextual search-results returned by artificial-intelligence-informed software. Amazon does something like this today, where it says "We have recommendations for you," "You might also consider," and "Customers with similar searches purchased. . ."

This is where alliance partner PacketVideo Corp. comes into the picture. Its MediaFusion software rolls up service providers' multimedia services into a single portal. It combines everything into one interface, which appears on the target smartphone and acts as a mobile storefront for music, ringtones, and video.

The "push" search angle comes into play because PacketVideo says that MediaFusion delivers promotions personalized to each user. (I.e., along with playing and selling multimedia content, the software can offer suggestions to users for additional purchases.) Presumably, Google, working with PacketVideo, could propel push features much further along.)

It's possible to make too much out of this technology, and it might be a bit ahead of the market. Indeed, the U.S. pioneer in this space, Verizon, has seen its VCAST mobile music and video service advance in fits and starts in terms of customer acceptance, despite an aggressive marketing campaign.

Then again, take note of which company makes the multimedia software behind the delivery of video on VCAST: It's PacketVideo.

8

Handheld-Gaming Quality Graphics

The name Nvidia commonly conjures up visions of heavy duty graphics on the PC desktop. But Nvidia is also a provider of graphics-processing engines for a surprisingly broad array of smartphones, including models made by Open Handset Alliance member HTC. Nvidia chips are also in LG, Samsung, and Kyocera phones, as well as in the O2 Flame, an interesting PDA-like model marketed by European service provider O2 (this is likely an HTC-made device).

As an Alliance member itself, Nvidia can be expected to contribute its chips to GPhones, which could double as handheld gaming systems.

It's interesting to speculate that the GPhone might finally succeed in forging a convergence between mobile phones and handheld gaming devices. That's something Nokia tried and failed at in 2003, with the launch of the N-Gage as a standalone handheld games systems. (N-Gage has since reappeared, not as a system, but as games offered on Nokia smartphones.)

Because N-Gage didn't engage, today's market sees kids toting Nintendo DSs and Sony PSPs, while adults carry their Blackberrys and iPhones. However, since game enthusiasts make the point that the average player isn't a child but rather a 30 year old (presumably, male) grown-up, the market may indeed be ripe for a GPhone gaming edition.

For Further Information

Image Gallery: Technologies That'll Be Inside The GPhone

Open Handset Alliance