Why show Google Earth in a write up on the Google Phone initiative? because it speaks to the method and theme that Google is taking in its late entry into the mobile phone market – its different, orthogonal, and open sourcing a lot of what has heretofore been a very proprietary and closed market. My apologies to Java ME, Nokia and Symbian. Steven Vaughan-Nichols catches the flavor of the two world views clashing in his eWeek piece on social networking software.
Basically, you have two titans of software, Microsoft and Google dueling it out over what shall win in the software wars. Microsofts proprietary, tightly coupled, EULA protected bundles of software joy versus Googles open (often open source too) to many vendors; ad, service or plugin revenues supported; and therefore fast updated model. It is not obvious which will win in the mobile market. But as Steven points out – this market dynamic and clash will play out several times more in the battle for software position, mindspace, and revenue streams among the big two Goliaths.