GizmoStyle // We Love The Web : The GPhone – A software platform for cellphones

So, the Google Phone announcement has come and gone, and there were some surprised faces. Contrary to what has been buzzing on the web about the GPhone ( image leaks etc), what was announced today was a open software platform that’s going to be loaded on phones made by HTC, LG, Motorola and Samsung. Here’s a little snippet from the press release:

Despite all of the very interesting speculation over the last few months, we’re not announcing a Gphone. However, we think what we are announcing — the Open Handset Alliance and Android — is more significant and ambitious than a single phone. In fact, through the joint efforts of the members of the Open Handset Alliance, we hope Android will be the foundation for many new phones and will create an entirely new mobile experience for users, with new applications and new capabilities we can’t imagine today

Android is the first truly open and comprehensive platform for mobile devices. It includes an operating system, user-interface and applications — all of the software to run a mobile phone, but without the proprietary obstacles that have hindered mobile innovation.

These phones which will be made are going to be available in the US on Sprint and T-Mobile by the second half of 2008—plus, it’s going to be available in China, Japan, Germany, Italy, and Spain on their respective carriers. The 34 members of the Open Handset Alliance developing this gPhone will throw in their expertise (example, Nvidia with their graphical abilities, Skype with their VoIPing) and offer the collective goods under an open source licensing agreement.

The software’s actually been in development for three years, starting from the Google acquisition of a company called Android Inc. The most important part of this is that the platform will be free for handset manufacturers to load onto their phones, beating out other operating systems like Windows Mobile, Palm, and Symbian in terms of price. Video after the jump.