Verizon and Google Team Up on a Tablet to Fight Apple's iPad
In the rapidly escalating war over mobile devices and services, a new front has broken out in the white-hot tablet-computer arms race.
Verizon Wireless and Google (GOOG) are working on a tablet device to rival Apple's (AAPL) iPad, Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam toldThe Wall Street Journal on Tuesday.
McAdam's comments come one month after Google CEO Eric Schmidt reportedly said the Web search giant is working on a tablet that will run on the company's Android mobile operating system.
In a statement Tuesday, Google said it had "nothing to announce a this time," but also said "The Android smartphone platform was designed from the beginning to scale downward to feature phones and upward to MID [mobile Internet device] and netbook-style devices."
Getting Cozier
"What do we think the next big wave of opportunities are?" McAdam said in the Journal interview. "We're working on tablets together, for example." The joint effort is the latest example of the two companies teaming up to take on Apple, the tech juggernaut behind the popular iPhone and iPad devices.
With Apple standing by its mobile partner AT&T (T) as the exclusive service provider for the iPhone and iPad, Apple's archrival Google has grown closer to Verizon Wireless, which has aggressively marketed Google's Android-powered mobile phones.
"We're looking at all the things Google has in its archives that we could put on a tablet to make it a great experience," McAdam said. Like, e-books, perhaps?
Google "Looks Forward to Contributions"
In response to an inquiry on the matter Google issued a tantalizingly vague statement that began by describing Android as "a free, open-source mobile platform."
"This means that anyone can take the Android platform and add code or download it to create a mobile device without restrictions," the company said, adding, "We look forward to seeing what contributions are made and how an open platform spurs innovation, but we have nothing to announce at this time."
Fair enough, I suppose. No need to announce anything -- you just let Verizon do it for you. Party on!
