Google to unveil mobile strategy: sources

By Sinead Carew

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Google Inc (GOOG.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) will unveil its mobile strategy on Monday, including a phone operating system and a broad alliance with multiple wireless service providers and handset vendors, people familiar with the matter said on Friday.

Sources said the Google mobile operating system would be based on open-source Linux code, which will support applications from different software developers in addition to Google's own services, which include e-mail and mapping.

Its partners include Sprint Nextel Corp (S.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Deutsche Telekom's (DTEGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) T-Mobile USA, Motorola Inc (MOT.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Samsung Electronics (005930.KS: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), sources said.

The phones are expected to come on the market around the middle of 2008, said one person who was briefed on the plans.

"What Google is trying to do is win the war for a much larger audience, that being the mobile device," said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

"Google has been frustrated with their efforts to date to go in and do what they want (in mobile)," the source added. "Now they're taking a different tactic, saying: 'Why don't we create a broader working group where we're the anchor?"'

The alliance, which aims to boost mobile Web surfing, has more than 25 members, the source said. Noticeably absent, others said, is handset market leader Nokia Oyj (NOK1V.HE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), which owns 47.9 percent of British software company Symbian -- a developer of operating systems for advanced cell phones.

Google, which dominates Web search on desktop computers, has long said Internet use on cell phones would be key to its growth, but it has not yet been able to crack the market.