Google's Android phone: Less than met the ear

Google made its anticipated announcement about a new Open System phone. People listened. What they heard was less than what they heard last week. The stock seems to be sliding a little in after-hours trading -- although not by much.

I had thought it would decline further. This was only an announcement of a new operating system for cell phones, not the unveiling of some fancy new gizmo like the iPhone. Handset makers include HTC, Samsung and Motorola.

But it's easier to get the handset makers on board -- they can cut costs with an Open and probably free OS -- than it is to get the mobile carriers to buy into this. As the Wall Street Journal predicted, Deutshe Telelkom's T-Mobile is a partner in Open Systems crime. So are Sprint Nextel and NTT DoCoMo.

Sprint and T-Mobile are desperate for something to distinguish themselves, and a wealth of new applications may help. Japanese carriers like NTT are more open to Open.

Absent are AT&T and Verizon, the biggest U.S. carriers. The Wall Street Journal brings up the legitimate issue of concern over rogue applications that may be security risks and steal info from us.  "Those issues partly explain why large U.S. operators like AT&T and Verizon ... have yet to sign on to Google's initiative."

Sure. I'll accept that. But I'll bet iPhones to land line handsets that the bigger reason is that they don't want to give up the ability to overcharge us for features.

Still, this will be a start -- in the second half of next year -- to wresting some control from the carriers. It will not only allow third party apps, it will operate on more than one carrier's cell network. That's got to put pressure on the Old Age carriers.

And perhaps when the handset makers reveal their phones there will be some nice surprises. We don't know yet if Google will release APIs for apps makers before the phones are released.

Also, analyst Jeff Van Rhee at Craig-Hallum, who follows Nuance Communications (maker of the Dragon voice recognition system) recently told me that there have been strong rumors that a Google-backed phone will include Nuance's software.

That could make QWERTY keyboards on phones obsolete. Just speak your email message or web search. That's a good app and one that Steve Jobs mysteriously passed on with the iPhone.

Now let's see if Google can pull it off. For everyone's sake, and the sake of real competition, I hope so.