Google's Open Handset Alliance and the Coming OS Tango

OK, so the news is out. Google has assembled an impressive alliance -- called Open Handset Alliance -- to create a new "open" operating system and software platform for mobile phones. If, as promised, it works across all kinds of phones and networks and makes the mobile Internet experience much better, the alliance could have a big impact.

But it won't be easy. Notice that Nokia -- the biggest, most powerful handset maker in the world -- isn't an alliance member. Neither are other top-ranked mobile device makers Sony Ericsson, Siemens or Samsung. They all own a stake in Symbian, the operating system that drives more than half of the world's handsets. Symbian gets somewhat ignored in the U.S. because it's not as pervasive here, but it's dominant in much of the rest of the world. And if the handset makers own stakes, how willing will they be to go to a new Google platform?

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