Google to Release Cellphone Next Year

Google is to release its own mobile platform next year in a bid to drastically shake up the cellphone industry and provide mobile users with a host of new applications, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The paper said Tuiesday that Google is planning to make a formal announcement in about two weeks.

The report said that Google was in talks with cellphone maker HTC of Taiwan and LG of South Korea to manufacture the phone, which would be tailored to Google software.

Google is also seeking partnerships with wireless operators like Deutsche Telekom AG's T-Mobile USA, France Telecom's Orange SA, and Hutchison Whampoa's 3 in Britain.

With this move, Google applications and services would be as easily accessible on mobile phones as on PCs, so that the company can extend its advertising business to the more than three billion users of cellphones and other wireless devices.

Worldwide, mobile ad spending is expected to reach $1.5 bn this year and grow to $11.3 bn by 2011, according to market researcher Informa Telecoms & Media.

Until now, Google has pursued various strategies to tap this market, adapting Google websites for mobile browsers as well as preloading Google software in handsets such as Apple's iPhone.