Google lines up telecom pieces

A disparate handful of efforts by Google came together this week to provide more details about the search giant’s telecom ambitions.

Google’s initiatives these days don’t come in the grandiose package of its 700Mhz spectrum bids earlier this year. Rather its efforts are rolling out in bits and pieces from a variety of products groups. But the ultimate prize hasn’t changed: “We can make more in mobile than desktop [advertisting] eventually,” Google CEO Eric Schmidt told TV’s Mad Money Host Jim Cramer last week.

And don’t be distracted. Moving its money-minting ad engine from the desktop to new venues – most notably, the cell phone -- is what is driving the bulk of Google’s telecom efforts, a handful of which took major steps forward in the past few days.

On Monday, Google released the first formal beta of its Android mobile operating system on Monday, version 0.9 SDK r1. The release features a major upgrade to the Android user interface, including an icon-pretty, widget-driven home screen; a new tab-based interface to access specific applications; and new camera and media player apps.

Analysts aren't sold that Android can be the game-changer it purports to be.

"Theoretically, where Google could be most disruptive is by using mobile ad revenue to subsidize the phone or subsidize service and fundamentally altering the industry’s economics," said Avi Greengart, analyst with Current Analysis. "Google has a significant consumer brand, but that, by itself, is not enough to sell phones – an Android phone will still have to compete in the real world against other devices. Consumers don’t buy operating systems, they buy devices."

The Android release seems well timed to make an appearance in what appears to be the first FCC-approved Android-based device, the so-called HTC dream, which T-Mobile confirmed it will debut this fall. The phone features a touch-screen like Apple’s iPhone but slide-out keyboards as well. The final, 1.0 version of the Android SDK is expected as early as next month. Reports also emerged last week that T-Mobile was preparing an “open application” store that would compete with Apple’s iPhone App Store. Such a store would at least be partially driven by Android-based applications.