Google promises cell phone openness

Google's Android cell phone software will provide new ways to plug in to data and new freedoms for wireless users, the company said yesterday at a San Diego technology conference.

Mountain View-based Google is leading development of the open-source phone software, which will be made available for free to phone manufacturers.

Users of Android-based phones, or gPhones, can expect freedom to control the software that runs on their smart phones, a Google Android developer said at the O'Reilly ETech conference. The event, which focuses on emerging technology, was held at the San Diego Marriott Hotel and Marina.

Manufacturers and mobile-service providers often lock down features, control downloads and restrict outside programs. The iPhone has been closed to software from outside developers until recently.

Android is open to outside software and is being designed to give control to the user, Android developer Dan Morrill said.

“Users will be free to vote with their feet,” Morrill said.

While similar openness drove the advance of the Web, it's not known whether the idea will prompt consumers to buy Android phones.

“Last year, Apple shook the cell phone world up with the iPhone,” said iSupply wireless analyst Tina Teng. “People are expecting really exciting applications on Android. But it remains to be seen.”

The first phone using the software is expected to be available in the second half of the year.

In addition to user control, Android phones will have “cutting-edge” ways to connect to data, Morrill said. Google has been one of the leaders helping consumers move online collections of photos, calendar information and documents in what is often called an online “cloud of content.”

Morrill said Android phones will be a “link to the cloud that fits in your pocket.”

The company has frequently demonstrated Android-based prototypes that display information from Google Maps. Yesterday it showed how it might connect to online data stored in a spreadsheet.

Using the example of a personal database of wine ratings that he and his wife maintain, Morrill showed how an Android phone could access his Google Docs spreadsheet. Instead of the familiar rows, columns and headers of a spreadsheet, the phone displayed a series of boxes that fit on the small screen, each containing the name, price and rating of a wine. He scrolled down the screen to view the full database.

The phone also can edit the information, with changes transmitted to the online spreadsheet.

Existing smart-phone systems allow mobile access to spreadsheets and other data, but they can be unmanageable on a small screen, Morrill said.

“Is the solution to try and download the whole application onto the phone? We think the answer is 'no.' ”