android Google’s mobile phone strategy finally came to light today as they announced the unveiling of the new Android mobile phone software at a press conference this morning. In addition to announcing a new whole new software platform, Google announced the formation of the Open Handset Alliance. The OHA is a multinational alliance who’s goal will be to develop applications on the Android platform. Some of the members of the Open Handset Alliance include HTC, Motorola, T-Mobile, and Qualcomm.

Android itself is an entire software stack designed to run on multiple hardware platforms. This of course puts the system in direct competition against Microsoft, Apple, Nokia, Palm, RIM, and Symbian. Android consists of an OS, middleware, a graphical user interface, and of course applications. The platform itself is the brain child of Andy Rubin who is the director of mobile platforms for Google. You can read more about Andy in this NY Times article here from the weekend.

So what’s the goal here? There are several ways at looking Android in our opinion. Let’s try and sort some of this out.

First off – mobile is clearly the wave of the future – at least in the eyes of Google. As more and more users are disconnected from their PC desktops, and hitting the roads with their mobile devices, there runs the possibility that people will begin less dependent on Google services and more dependent on their carrier services. Because of this, it was always clear to Google that they had to be a big time player in the mobile arena. Up until this announcement, being a player in the mobile arena for Google was about delivering simple applets or services directly to mobile phones. However, they still had to deal within the constraints of various platforms such as Windows Mobile, or OS X or Symbian. On top of this, any of these vendors can easily replace a Google service with their own. Replace Google maps with Windows Live Maps is one example. So what better way to make sure you’re a player by creating the platform from the ground up. Yup.. that’s what Android hopes to be – a platform for delivering “open” content and applications. Yet let’s not forget where a number of these applications and services will ultimately come from – Google.

Secondly, we mentioned briefly that the mobile arena is extremely fragmented and split into many different camps. We have the hardware folks, the software folks, and of course, the carriers. Carriers tend to pick a handful of mobile phone manufacturers and stick with them but they tend to have a great deal of say with the hardware manufacturers. Hardware folks tend to stick with a certain set of software companies etc etc. Google is trying to wrestle that control out by saying we’re developing a platform that can be run on a multitude of platforms – everything from low powered ARM processors to high end mobile devices.

It’s not an instant win by any means for Google of course. You have many platforms which are far more mature than the Android platform and you have many different alliances to deal with. You have hardware companies in bed with software companies in bed with carriers. You run in direct competition with the likes of Apple and Microsoft – two companies who clearly are battling each other in the mobile phone field but now find a common enemy in the form of Google. In fact, Windows Mobile is a clear leader in the Enterprise mobile market while Apple’s OS X for the iPhone has clearly jump started the way smartphones should operate.

Now if carriers don’t jump in – don’t be surprised if Google begins to offer their own service of some sort in the near future. We all know that Google intends on bidding for a portion of the 700MHz auction – can you imagine what will happen if they do indeed receive a piece of that property?  Yup – Google owned airwaves which will translate to devices and services that run over these airwaves using Google software.

Ultimately the idea is pretty straightforward. Create an open software platform, make licensing a cinch for others to deal with, and create a ton of devices and applications such that carriers have no choice but to carry devices with the platform.

The more devices with Android, the more people will use Google services, the more money the company ultimately makes. Simple.

You can check out Andy Rubin’s blog posting here.

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