Google has joined forces with T-Mobile, HTC, Qualcomm, Motorola and 30 other major technology and mobile leaders to announce the development of Android and the Open Handset Alliance.
There's a press call at noon, but the basic gist can be summed up here from their press release:
With nearly 3 billion users worldwide, the mobile phone has become the most personal and ubiquitous communications device. However, the lack of a collaborative effort has made it a challenge for developers, wireless operators and handset manufacturers to respond as quickly as possible to the ever-changing needs of savvy mobile consumers. Through Android, developers, wireless operators and handset manufacturers will be better positioned to bring to market innovative new products faster and at a much lower cost. The end result will be an unprecedented mobile platform that will enable wireless operators and manufacturers to give their customers better, more personal and more flexible mobile experiences.
This open, common platform will essentially reduce the barrier of entry for developers to create applications for mobile phones.
The significance of this for the satellite radio industry - at least from my initial take - is that the mobile audio industry is going to see far more rapid growth in terms of applications, and in turn services. So if we thought mobile audio was a growing threat before, wait until this takes hold.
Removing the need to do individual deals with wireless carriers in order to get onto a phone breaks down a HUGE barrier to entry. Not only that, but this move by Google will ignite carriers who are not participating in the Open Handset Alliance to make similar moves in "openness" (albeit, each with their own twist for profit).
In a few years, mobile phones won't be "phones" - they'll be mini-computers (they pretty much are already). And just like there's a whole generation who thinks of "radio" as streaming audio coming out of their computer speakers, look for the next generation to consider "radio" as streaming audio coming out of their pockets.
UPDATE: If you're looking for a good overview of this, check out the write in The Grey Lady.
One thing I was interested to discover while shopping for new cell phones recently was the fact that the service providers like Verizon often disable certain features in phones via their own proprietary software that's installed on the phones. But I guess that's the only way they can force you to pay $3 for a 12 second clip of a song compressed to 1kb/s as a ringtone. I was surprised enough to discover that I could put MP3s on a MicroSD card and listen to them on my phone, without having to buy them from VZW.
My VZW phone (LG-8100) stated right on the box that you could load mp3/wma music to a MiniSD card and play it. I doubt too many of them are going to broadcast that fact when they are indirectly competing against their OTA offerings like Verizon's V-Cast.
While this could seem to be a threat to Satellite Radio, if an application (or browser in general) was developed that allowed streaming via wifi, which I believe will become more popular in the coming months/years, it could prove to be one of the biggest steps forward for the Satellite Radio community as a whole. I, for one, will welcome an open platform and welcome developer's creation of applications that will not be device specific (or platform specific).