Mathew Ingram, I love you. What’s not to love when you describe the current cell phone industry this way:

I’ll say one thing: mobile is one of the places where we could all use a bit more openness. Right now, the mobile sphere is where the Internet was back in the early 1990s — it’s a morass of proprietary standards and walled-garden content, combined with the most usurious fees since the department-store credit card was invented.

Boy, it sure is. Oh, and I can’t let this lovely observation go wasted either:

As for Apple’s iPhone, it may be sexy and fantastically useful, but it is still a bit like a mobile version of America Online as far as I can tell (just as Facebook is on the Web). Is that really the best we can do?

Well, is it? I hope not.
Now here’s the thing — there’s a lot of disappointment and negativity coming around the Google mobile platform announcement today, but I think it’s the best thing that’s happened in a long, long time. Part of the disappointment comes from the part of the announcement that none of this can be in the hands of the consumer before mid-2008. But consider this: The FCC auction of the 700mhz band doesn’t happen until January 24, 2008. Google has already signalled their intent to participate in that auction and in fact, has forced some open access conditions as part of the auction. Given that the auction won’t happen till 2008, I see a couple of things happening. First, there may yet be a gPhone, depending on the outcome of the auction and how Google fares. Second, any phone operating on an open platform will likely be developed for the 700mhz spectrum, which means no FCC approval until mid-2008 on the phone. How could it be any other way?

Steve Jobs announced the iPhone in early January 2007 and it wasn’t available until late June, 20087. This is not much different, EXCEPT that this time around we could end up with a completely unlocked phone that’s not married to a carrier. I count that as a huge consumer victory. Om Malik questions how open the platform will be if it’s built into a Sprint phone to which I reply, “Who the hell cares?” If I can buy a phone that has the Google apps and platform on it and take it from AT&T to Sprint to whoever on that 700 mhz spectrum, I don’t NEED the little Sprint sprite or AT&T globe or Verizon logo on it anymore. I just need the phone and a compatible carrier.

Whatever else this is, it’s disruptive first, because now AT&T and the others will have to consider the possibility of stepping back and figuring out how important it is to their business to make phones the loss leader for the service. Up to now, they’ve held their customers captive with incredibly long commitments to contracts based on the “free phone” or “discounted phone” carrot. Now they will have to realistically consider the possibility that their SERVICE will be the deciding factor, not the equipment. Wow, what a concept. These are companies that don’t give a damn for their customers and demonstrate it on a daily basis. Now they’re going to have to, because the customer is no longer going to be held captive.

Good for Google. At least they’re out there trying to keep things competitive, interesting and moving in the right direction.

Technorati Tags: Google, wireless, gPhone, AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, 700mhz