Google Can't Change the Game

Ideally, any device, even one that is not yet invented, should be allowed to capitalize on some of this wireless data potential.

But here are two signs the open standards movement is off to less than a great start:

First, a month into the Android project -- the Google-sponsored open handset alliance -- software teams are doing far more grumbling than application development. Apparently, the stack of Linux and Java programs at the core of the new mobile phone operating system is crawling with bugs.

	Photo: Open Handset Alliance

Second, walled-garden keeper Verizon Wireless has opened a gate of sorts. The wireless phone giant, co-owned by Verizon and Vodafone (VOD Quote), countered Android with an any-device invitation. Tellingly, the first outfit in line was Hop On, a leader in the portable gambling industry. If nothing else, the legal opportunities should be huge.

To be sure, loosening the telcos' grip on the types of services and devices people can use is long overdue, but there's little to suggest that we may be saying goodbye to the status quo.

"I don't think we will see the sort of results people were expecting," says Roger Entner of IAG Research, referring to the impact of the open standards movement next year.

"It will prove one thing, though," says Entner, "people like cheap phones and they don't mind contracts."