MapQuest Mobile

Find places, get maps and directions on your phone wherever you are.

MapQuest Mobile offers U.S. and Canadian coverage from the world's leading online map provider. Instantly find your way with interactive color maps, step-by-step instructions, reverse directions and recall of recent addresses.

NEW Features Just Released!!

The newest enhancements to MapQuest Mobile include:

MapQuest's Points of Interest
Find over 15 million Points of Interest including restaurants, hotels, or theaters from the MapQuest.com database.

Multipoint Routing
Select multi-points along your route and receive step-by-step directions.

Find places, get maps and step-by-step directions for Canada!

Click to Call a Business directly from MapQuest Mobile (availability limited to certain carriers).

Access Recent Locations and Multi-Routes
Access your most recent places and multi-routes

Save Locations and Multi-Routes to Favorites
Save your places and multi-routes to your Favorites folder

Pedestrian Navigation
Get directions for walking routes.

Choose Advanced Routing Options
Optimize your route by choosing the shortest time or distance and/or avoid tolls.

MapQuest Mobile typically costs $3.99 per month and is available on most cell phone carriers. See if it's available for your phone.

MapQuest Mobile was created in partnership with Zingy, one of the best-known publishers of consumer applications for mobile phones.

Save frequently visited destinations in "My Places" menu

U.S. only. AOL Mobile services may require a wireless data plan and charges from your wireless carrier may apply. Not all AOL Mobile services are available on all wireless carriers or on all wireless devices. Check with your wireless carrier to confirm that product use is consistent with your carrier's Terms of Service.

MapQuest Mobile - Get It Now

Does my wireless provider offer MapQuest Mobile?
MapQuest currently partners with the following wireless providers. Each of the providers below offer access to MapQuest Mobile using the indicated phones.

Alltell
• Audiovox CDM8410
• Audiovox CDM8910
• Kyocera KX16
• Kyocera KX414
• Kyocera KX434
• Kyocera KX440
• Kyocera KX1
• Kyocera KX5
• Kyocera 3250
• Kyocera SE44
• LG AX5000
• LG LX5450
• LG LX5550
• LG UX245
• LG UX390
• LG VX4270
• LG VX4700
• LG VX3200
• Motorola E815
• Motorola T720
• Motorola V262
• Motorola V265
• Motorola V3C
• Motorola V3M
• Motorola V710
• Nokia 6255
• Nokia 6265i
• Samsung N330
Download Instructions:
1. From your phone's main menu, select Axcess Apps
2. Find Axcess Apps, and select the Axcess Shop and then select Start
3. Then choose the Tools - Search
4. Select MapQuest
5. Finally, enjoy!

---

Amp'd Mobile
• Kyocera KX18
• Motorola E816
• Motorola V323
• Motorola V3m

CellularSouth
• Audiovox CDM8410
• Kyocera KX1
• Audiovox CDM8615
• Kyocera KX2
• LG VX6100
• Audiovox CDM8600
• Audiovox CDM8900
• Audiovox CDM8910
• Kyocera SE47 a.k.a Slider
• Motorola T720
• Motorola V262
• Motorola V710
• Nokia 6255
• Nokia 6256i

Download Instructions:
1. From your phone's main menu, select BREW
2. Then choose INFORMATION
3. Select MapQuest Mobile
4. Enjoy!

---

Cellular One West (Western Wireless)
• Audiovox CDM-8600
• Audiovox CDM-8900
• Kyocera KX1
• Kyocera KX414
• Kyocera SE47 (aka Slider)
• Motorola T720

Download Instructions:
1. From your phone's main menu, select BREW
2. Then choose INFORMATION
3. Select MapQuest Mobile
4. Enjoy!

---

AT&T
• Motorola V600
• Motorola T720
• Motorola T721
• Motorola T725i
• Nokia 3100
• Nokia 3200
• Nokia 3300
• Nokia 3650
• Nokia 6200
• Nokia 6620
• Nokia 6800
• Nokia 6820
• Sony Ericsson T616

Download Instructions:
1. From your phone's main menu, select mMode
2. Select Browse Websites
3. Then choose the What's Nearby category
4. Select MapQuest
5. Finally, enjoy!

---

• LG C1300i
• LG F9100
• Motorola V180
• Motorola V220
• Motorola V551
• Nokia 3100
• Nokia 3220
• Nokia 6010
• Nokia 6620
• Nokia 6800
• Nokia 6820
• Samsung E317
• Samsung x427M
• Sony Ericsson S710a
• Sony Ericsson Z500a

Download Instructions:
1. From your phone's main menu, select 'MediaNet'
2. On the MediaNet screen, select 'Weather & Travel' or 'Maps & Directories'
5. Enjoy.

---

Cricket
• Audivox CDM-8900
• Kyocera Koi / KX2
• Kyocera K9
• Kyocera KX5
• Kyocera SE47 (aka Slider)
• Motorola V262
• Motorola V3C (RAZR)

Download Instructions:
1. Click on the 'Cricket Clicks' or 'BREW' icon on your phone
2. Click on the shopping cart
3. Select Information
4. Select 'MapQuest Mobile'.
5. Enjoy.

---

ESPN
• MVP

MetroPCS (@Metro)
• Audiovox CDM-8900
• Kyocera KX433
• Kyocera SE47 (aka Slider)
• Samsung A610

Download Instructions:
1. From your phone's main menu, select '@Metro'
2. Then select '@Info'.
3. Select 'MapQuest Mobile'.
4. Enjoy.

---

Midwest Wireless
• Audiovox CDM8900
• Audiovox CDM8910
• Kyocera KX1
• Kyocera KX2
• Kyocera SE44
• LG VX4400
• LG VX6000
• LG VX6100
• Motorola C343
• Motorola T720
• Motorola V710
• Nokia 6255i
• Samsung A670

Sprint (PCS Vision / Applications)
• LG 5225
• LG 5350
• LG LX325
• LG LX535
• LG VI125
• Nokia 3155
• Samsung A500
• Samsung A600
• Samsung A620
• Samsung A660
• Samsung A680
• Samsung A700
• Samsung A740
• Samsung A760
• Samsung A880
• Samsung A900
• Samsung A920
• Nokia 3205
• Samsung N400
• Sanyo 2300
• Sanyo 4900
• Sanyo 4920
• Sanyo 4930
• Sanyo 5300
• Sanyo 5400
• Sanyo 5500
• Sanyo 5600
• Sanyo 7200
• Sanyo 7300
• Sanyo 7400
• Sanyo 8100
• Sanyo 8200
• Sanyo 8300
• Sanyo MM7500
• Sanyo MM9000
• Nokia 6225

Download Instructions:
1. From your phone's main menu, select Downloads
2. Select Applications
3. Then choose Get New
4. Select the Travel category
5. Download MapQuest Mobile
6. Finally, enjoy!

---

T-Mobile
• Motorola V300
• Motorola V600
• Nokia 3595
• Nokia 3650
• Nokia 6010
• Nokia 6600
• Nokia 6800

Download Instructions:
1. 'MapQuest Mobile' can be found in your phone's T-Zone menu.
2. For more information, please contact T-Mobile.

---

US Cellular (easyedge)
• Audiovox CDM8900
• Audiovox CDM8910
• Kyocera KX1
• Kyocera KX2
• Kyocera KX414
• Kyocera SE44
• Kyocera SE47 (aka Slider)
• LG LX5550
• LG VX4400
• LG VX6000
• LG VX6100
• Motorola T720
• Motorola V262
• Motorola V265
• Motorola V323
• Motorola V3C
• Motorola V710
• Samsung a645
• Samsung a850

Download Instructions:
1. Select Menu
2. Find the Download Shop then select Start
3. Then choose Find People, Places and Things category
4. Select Mapquest Mobile
5. Finally, enjoy!

---

Verizon (GetItNow)
• Audiovox CDM180
• Audiovox CDM8600
• Audiovox CDM8615
• Audiovox CDM8900
• Audiovox CDM8910
• Audiovox CDM8940
• Audiovox CDM8945
• Audiovox CDM9200
• Audiovox PN215
• Kyocera KX1
• Kyocera KX2
• Kyocera KX414C / KX414
• Kyocera SE47(aka Slider)
• LG VX4400
• LG VX4500
• LG VX4600
• LG VX4700
• LG VX5200
• LG VX5300
• LG VX6000
• LG VX6100
• LG VX7000
• LG VX8000
• LG VX8300
• LG VX9800
• Motorola E815
• Motorola K1c EVDO
• Motorola T720
• Motorola V260
• Motorola V265
• Motorola V325
• Motorola V3C(RZR)
• Motorola V3M(RZR)
• Motorola V710
• Motorola V840
• Nokia 6215i
• Nokia 6236I
• Nokia 6256i
• Nokia 6305i
• Nokia 6315i
• Samsung A530
• Samsung A570
• Samsung A610
• Samsung A650
• Samsung A670
• Samsung A690
• Samsung A790
• Samsung A850
• Samsung A870
• Samsung A890
• Samsung A930
• Samsung A950
• Samsung A970
• Samsung A990
• Samsung N330

Download Instructions:
1. Find the Get It Now icon on your phone
2. Select the Shopping Cart icon
3. Choose Get Going
4. Choose Travel
5. Then choose Mapquest Mobile
6. Finally, enjoy!

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Kodak EasyShare V1233 12.1-Megapixel Digital Camera – Black

Model #: EKC   V1233BLACK

Google Enters The "Store"Age With GDrive

Google's GDrive has the potential to disrupt the PC, storage, virus, and a few other industries. Who wins and who loses?

In 1980, Steve Balmer's mother said "Why would a person ever need a computer?". Soon all you will need is a keyboard and monitor.

The transformation of computer processing is going online, so why shouldn't our data be stored online too? There is a tipping point of sorts here for Google. Up until now they have been great at providing access to data on the Net, but now they are attempting to provide you access to YOUR data.

You can get by if one of Google's applications is offline, or if their search engine doesn't give you the desired results, but could you survive if GDrive failed?

From WSJ Online Google Plans Service to Store Users' Data

Google Inc. wants to offer consumers a new way to store their files on its hard drives, in a strategy that could accelerate a shift to Web-based computing and intensify the Internet company's competition with Microsoft Corp.

Google is preparing a service that would let users store on its computers essentially all of the files they might keep on their personal-computer hard drives -- such as word-processing documents, digital music, video clips and images, say people familiar with the matter. The service could let users access their files via the Internet from different computers and mobile devices when they sign on with a password, and share them online with friends.

Why won't it work for Google?

Until Google offers real time technical support, consumers will not trust storing their data with an email based tech support service. If Google expects to offer a "we will store your data" service, they must implement a 24 hour tech support line.

I expected Microsoft, Verisign, Dell or even local ISPs (trusted names) to come out with an online storage service. Store your data for a fee based on size or time. Verisign would access your computer daily (or at a time you request) and backup any new data.
You could then access your data from any computer. In addition, your storage provider would be in charge of updating for new viruses and scan regularly.

Because Google's tech support is non-existent, I would rather store my data with my ISP. I can reach my ISP 24/7 if there's a problem.

CamClic Connects 1D Bar Codes To Internet For Pharmaceutical Industry

Today the pharmaceutical industry, what next?

Brand managers and mobile marketing agencies should be excited about the ability to "turn on" any product using a camera phone and the already printed 1D bar code.

Now any item with a 1D barcode can be connected to the Internet, delivering relevant information and creating an interactive experience. CamClic delivers permission granted mobile marketing.

CamClic allows anyone to create AND scan 1D barcodes (in addition to 2D codes) with a camera phone.

The billions of 1d bar codes that already exist on products, and newly created 2d codes from consumers and content creators, when scanned with a camera phone (Physical World Connection), have the ability to disrupt the advertising industry.

The CamClic solution has solved one of the biggest hurdles of Physical World Connection, scanning a 1d code with a mobile phone.

As the global leader in mobile e-packing of products and brands, CamClic now starts enabling the Real World Web for all brand owners around the world, starting with Sweden. With a free service with both publishing tools and mobile software for CamClics customers, the opportunity for the world brand owners is huge in turning their standard consumer goods packages into on-line consumer communicators.

In Sweden all the pharmaceutical packages are now "turned on" since a project with this branch started in the late summer. When a patient or user reads the 1D barcode with CamClic in his mobile phone, additional pharmaceutical information will be shown together with other information and special product services. In the future it will be possible for the pharmaceutical companies to stop distributing the product manual and instead distribute a electronic version with CamClic and the 1D barcode. The costs saved in stop printing manuals will be huge together with saving the environment.

CamClic will revolutionize the pharmaceutical industry - together with all other product industries - during the forthcoming years. The standard consumer goods packages will now contain on-line additional information and services through the 1D barcode - the already existing Real World Web hyperlink. (full story)

Here's why I think CamClic's model could really take off. Brands can encourage consumers to click on their barcodes for info/coupons etc and consumers can also click on codes and form their own hyperlink, or social network community.

Yahoo! Extends Global Mobile Leadership Through Nine New Partnerships With Mobile Operators in Asia Pacific

Yahoo! Expands Reach with Sixteen Total oneSearch Operator Partnerships across Asia Pacific Region; Offers Localized Content for a Personalized Mobile Internet Experience

SUNNYVALE, Calif. and MACAU, S.A.R., Nov 13, 2007 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX News Network/ -- MOBILE ASIA CONGRESS -- Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) today announced nine new partnerships with some of the leading mobile operators across the Asia Pacific region, in its continuing effort to partner with mobile operators globally to reach hundreds of millions of consumers. Through Yahoo!'s partnerships with mobile operators, Yahoo! oneSearch, Yahoo!'s leading mobile search technology, will power the search experience for consumers on partner mobile internet sites and provide additional revenue opportunities for these partners.

The new partnership agreements include leading mobile operators such as Aircel Limited (India), BPL Mobile (India), Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL; India), DiGi Telecommunications Sdn Bhd (DiGi; Malaysia), PT EXCELCOMINDO PRATAMA Tbk. (Excelcom; Indonesia), PT Hutchison CP Telecom (Hutch 3; Indonesia), PT Indosat, Tbk (Indosat; Indonesia), PCCW Mobile HK Limited (Hong Kong) and Starhub Ltd (Singapore).

These strategic partnerships demonstrate Yahoo!'s continued momentum, building on seven previous partnerships with Asian mobile operators and reinforce Yahoo!'s strong leadership position in mobile audience reach, mobile search services and mobile advertising. Additional mobile search partnerships announced earlier this year in the Asia Pacific region include Globe Telecom Inc. (Philippines), Idea Cellular Limited (India), LG Telecom (Korea), Maxis Communications Berhad (Malaysia), PT Telekomunikasi Selular (Telkomsel; Indonesia), SmarTone-Vodafone (Hong Kong) and Taiwan Mobile Co (Taiwan).

"Fostering and developing high quality partnerships is a cornerstone of our mobile strategy and, together with our partners, we are delivering a premier mobile Internet experience to our respective consumers," said David Ko, vice president and general manager, Connected Life Asia, Yahoo!. "Today's partnerships with leading operators across Asia add to Yahoo!'s incredible momentum in mobile and underscore our leadership in this important and growing market."

With today's announcement, Yahoo! has distribution partnerships with twenty mobile operators around the world and is currently available in nineteen countries. Yahoo! oneSearch is a search service explicitly designed to serve the needs of mobile users. oneSearch integrates content from a variety of sources, providing consumers with access to news, financial information, weather conditions, Flickr photos, Yahoo! Answers, Web images, movies, flight status, Wikipedia, currency conversion as well as Web and Mobile Web sites. For more information, visit http://m.yahoo.com on the mobile Internet or http://mobile.yahoo.com on the Web.

About Yahoo!

Yahoo! Inc. is a leading global Internet brand and one of the most trafficked Internet destinations worldwide. Yahoo! is focused on powering its communities of users, advertisers, publishers, and developers by creating indispensable experiences built on trust. Yahoo! is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. For more information, visit pressroom.yahoo.com or the company's blog, Yodel Anecdotal.

Yahoo! is a leading provider of mobile Internet services, including Yahoo! oneSearch and Yahoo! Go 2.0, to consumers worldwide. Through relationships with more than 80 mobile operators and device manufacturers in 40 countries Yahoo! brings the company's innovative mobile Internet services directly to fingertips.

For more information on Yahoo! Mobile please visit  mobile.yahoo.com

 Yahoo!, Flickr, oneSearch, and the Yahoo! logo are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Yahoo! Inc.

Contacts:

Cory Pforzheimer, 408-349-2686
coryp@yahoo-inc.com

Zealous Wiley, 408-349-3623
Zealous@yahoo-inc.com

SOURCE Yahoo! Inc.

http://www.yahoo.com

Copyright ^© 2007 PR Newswire. All rights reserved

News Provided by COMTEX

Yahoo! Makes Mobile Search in Latin America a Reality

Yahoo! oneSearch Launches in Beta with Localized Content for Argentina, Brazil and Mexico

SUNNVALE, Calif., Nov 13, 2007 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO) a leading global Internet company, today announced the availability of Yahoo! oneSearch beta for Argentina, Brazil and Mexico. Beginning today, consumers in Latin America are able to access the industry's leading mobile search experience with localized content presented in Spanish and Portuguese. This announcement continues Yahoo!'s momentum by further increasing the global reach of oneSearch and reinforcing the company's strong leadership in the mobile industry, and comes on the heels of a partnership with Telefonica announced in October (see announcement titled "Telefonica and Yahoo! Partner to Bring Global Mobile Services to More Than 100 Million Consumers.")

Yahoo! oneSearch is an innovative search service explicitly designed to serve the needs of mobile users by delivering results directly in the first screen and thereby removing the need for consumers to navigate through a sea of links to PC Web sites to find the information they want. OneSearch improves consumers' search experience on mobile devices by integrating content from a variety of sources across the open Web, providing consumers with access to localized news, financial information, weather conditions, Flickr photos, Yahoo! Answers, Web images, as well as Web and Mobile Web sites.

"Yahoo! oneSearch has changed mobile search by fundamentally improving the way consumers access and use the Internet on their mobile phones," said Bruce Stewart, vice president and general manager, Connected Life Americas, Yahoo!. "By extending the premier mobile search service tailored to the unique needs of the Latin American consumer, we're providing compelling mobile experiences to millions of people and driving further usage of mobile Internet services in the region."

To access Yahoo! oneSearch, Latin American consumers should open their Web browser on their mobile phones and visit m.yahoo.com. At the Yahoo mobile homepage, simply enter a query into the oneSearch box, and the most relevant results and instant answers will be presented in an easy to read format designed for the mobile phone. For example, if a consumer wants to track the stock price and latest news for a certain company, just type the company name or ticker symbol into the search box. The oneSearch results list the company's Web site and stock quote, followed by recent news articles and Web and Mobile Web results. To dig more deeply into the results, a consumer simply needs to click on any item or category. For instance, by clicking on the ticker symbol in the oneSearch results, the user will be presented with in-depth financial information and company statistics as well as a stock chart showing recent performance.

Yahoo! is an established, early and aggressive leader that is helping to drive the growth of mobile advertising. With the launch of oneSearch in Latin America, Yahoo! is providing marketers and mobile operators with new opportunities to connect people to content and create new revenue streams through mobile advertising.

For additional information on oneSearch in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico, please visit http://ar.mobile.yahoo.com, http://br.mobile.yahoo.com, or http://mx.mobile.yahoo.com. For more information on Yahoo! Mobile please visit mobile.yahoo.com

About Yahoo!

Yahoo! Inc. is a leading global Internet brand and one of the most trafficked Internet destinations worldwide. Yahoo! is focused on powering its communities of users, advertisers, publishers, and developers by creating indispensable experiences built on trust. Yahoo! is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. For more information, visit pressroom.yahoo.com or the company's blog, Yodel Anecdotal.

Yahoo! is a leading provider of mobile Internet services, including Yahoo! oneSearch and Yahoo! Go 2.0, to consumers worldwide. Through relationships with more than 80 mobile operators and device manufacturers in 40 countries Yahoo! brings the company's innovative mobile Internet services directly to fingertips. Yahoo!, Flickr, oneSearch, and the Yahoo! logo are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Yahoo! Inc.

SOURCE: Yahoo! Inc.

Yahoo!, Inc. Cory Pforzheimer, 408-349-2686 coryp@yahoo-inc.com Zealous Wiley, 408-349-3623 Zealous@yahoo-inc.com

Copyright Business Wire 2007

News Provided by COMTEX

San Francisco (IDGNS) - Google's announcement on Monday of a mobile development platform that could radically alter the wireless market is yet another example of the lengths the company will go to keep its advertising business growing at a jaw-dropping rate.

t is also another awe-inspiring -- or terrifying, depending on one's perspective -- display of the engineering and business resources Google can unleash and of the power it has to influence, disrupt and rearrange markets.

It did it, originally, in the search engine market, of course, by building a better mousetrap at a time when finding information on the Web was a thoroughly unsatisfying experience because the incumbents for years had provided substandard services.

Along the way, it found a way to generate loads of advertising revenue, creating the empire that has given it the financial might to march into new markets and, while not always succeeding, at least spooking the existing players.

For example, in 2004, Gmail shook up the stale Webmail market, rousing complacent players like Microsoft and Yahoo and forcing them to innovate again in order to meet Google's challenge.

Likewise, it has gone, with various degrees of success, into instant messaging, photo management, radio, print and TV advertising, enterprise search, Web analytics and hosted business applications.

Now it has set its sights on the mobile market, where until now it has been an outsider with, at best, a peripheral role.

It's mighty ambitious of Google to waltz in and attempt to change basic, ingrained rules in a notoriously cutthroat market with powerful and long-established gatekeepers that are intensely protective of their own interests.

"What we have here is Google trying to move the whole mobile Internet forward through this alliance," said industry analyst Greg Sterling of Sterling Market Intelligence.

In a nutshell, Google announced a free, open-source application development platform called Android for mobile devices with the intention of eclipsing existing operating systems from Microsoft, Symbian, Palm and others.

In typical Google fashion, the move seems thought through with chess-like thoroughness.

"It's significant that they didn't build an actual Google phone" said Gartner analyst Ken Dulaney, referring to rumors to that effect. Such a move would have angered many potential partners. "That would have been a disaster."

Android will have a complete set of components, including a Linux-based operating system, middleware stack, customizable user interface and applications.

Google envisions that with Android, developers will flood the mobile market with new applications and online services that can be written once and deployed in many phones, something that, as Google sees it, the current mobile technical fragmentation prevents.

The goal: to radically improve the creation, delivery and provision of mobile online services and applications, in the hopes that as people find the experience more satisfying, their mobile Web and Internet usage will balloon, along with online ad revenue.

Many questions remain unanswered about this latest foray, and the accomplishment of its grand vision is far from assured, but Google could effect significant change in how wireless carriers, handset makers and mobile application developers do business.

"What makes it real and powerful is the credibility of all these partners they have gathered," Sterling said. "It means that this has got buy-in in a very powerful way from the get-go."

Google's Open Handset Alliance is launching with 33 partners on board, including T-Mobile, HTC, Qualcomm, Motorola, Broadcom, eBay, China Mobile, Intel, LG Electronics, NTT DoCoMo, Nvidia, Samsung, Sprint Nextel, Telecom Italia, Telefonica, Texas Instruments and Wind River.

Of course, victory is far from secure.

For starters, not everyone is on board. Apple, Nokia, AT&T and Verizon are noticeably absent from the partners' list. Also, while the vision looks shiny at a conceptual level, many technical details remain undisclosed.

"We have a bit of a wait and see until we see what the platform will look like next week," said Van Baker, a Garner analyst. "We're operating in the dark. We're hearing lots of good intentions but it remains to be seen what they will actually deliver."

Google promises more details will be provided next week when it releases the Android software development kit, which will be free to use under the Apache V2 license.

Baker is particularly interested in the browser component of Android, which Google officials Monday described as full-featured and based on HTML, thus able to replicate a PC experience on a mobile phone.

That is a big claim, and if that browser in fact functions in that manner, Android's effect on the market will likely be significant, as the only thing that would approach this claim in the market today is the iPhone's Safari, Baker said.

"I confess to being skeptical [about the browser description] but if they can deliver on that, it could be very compelling," Baker said.

Another potential pitfall is the freedom of the open-source license, which gives developers, handset makers and carriers a lot of leeway to add proprietary extensions and modifications, which could result in an aggravation of the problem that Google is trying to solve: technical fragmentation.

"This could lead to further fragmentation in the market because the license allows any licensee to use whatever pieces [of the platform] they want and ignore whatever pieces or parts they want," Baker said.

Whether Android will have its desired effect will become clear once phones and applications built on it start appearing in the second half of 2008. At the time, cell phone subscribers will cast the most important votes in this contest.

Certainly, the lack of support at this point from AT&T and Verizon is notable, if not surprising, Baker said. Big carriers like Verizon and AT&T are comfortable with the significant control they exert currently over the applications and services available to their subscribers.

"This could loosen that [grip] up a bit," Baker said.

Sterling shares a similar view. "Android represents a way into mobile for a lot of parties that currently don't have a way in. It represents a way around the walled garden of the U.S. carriers," Sterling said.

Apple, which has been traditionally a Google ally, is likely not enthused about Android, which could make it easier for competitors to match, or at least approach, the iPhone's innovations.

Ultimately, what is propelling Google in this effort is its core advertising business, which the company recognizes it must extend to the mobile market.

A small market today, mobile advertising is expected to attain a significant size in coming years. According to Opus Research, mobile advertising spending in North America and Western Europe will reach a combined US$5.08 billion by 2012, up from an estimated $106.8 million at the end of this year. This represents a compound annual growth rate of 116 percent.

Opus Research, which released the forecast last week, said that improving the mobile user experience will prompt more people to spend more time using the Internet via their cell phones. This in turn will fuel ad revenue growth.

In the end, independently of what ends up happening, Google's entry into the mobile market is a welcome development, Dulaney said.

"We need powerful players from the 'wired' Internet market to get into the mobile space to break up the tight control carriers have had on content," Dulaney said. "So far, carriers have controlled all the content and they've been bad at it. Innovation has been stifled."