NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- Google's expected partnership with Nokia for a WiFi device could be seen as a bet on the trend of more communities installing wireless Web connections.
The Wall Street Journal reported Friday on its Web site that Nokia will launch on Tuesday a version of its handheld Internet browsing device containing Google's Google Talk service, which allows for voice connections and instant messaging. It is an upgrade to a Nokia product that came out last year, the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet, the Finnish company's first mobile device that also isn't a cellphone.
The new device relies on WiFi, which enables short-range wireless Internet technology, instead of cellphone networks. Users won't be able to call regular phones. The Journal reported that the device will cost about $390.
The WiFi market is growing. Many schools, offices and even coffee shops across the U.S. already have WiFi capability. As many as 300 municipalities - including San Francisco, Philadelphia, Suffolk County in Long Island, N.Y., and the entire state of Connecticut - are making plans to offer the WiFi service free of charge.
For Google, this is an important partnership since Nokia is the top selling handset maker in the world, and the potential for "adding eyeballs" to the Internet company's advertising, said Richard Doherty, research director at Envisioneering Group, a market research firm.
In the move to the mobile Internet, Google has been "squeezed out" by the carriers, Doherty said.
Some cellphone equipment makers, including Avaya, Cisco Systems and Motorola, are reportedly testing devices that have both WiFi and cellphone network capability.
But many of the wireless service companies might not be keen on offering the wireless Internet technology since calls made on WiFi networks would go to Internet telecommunications companies such as Vonage Holdings Corp. and eBay's Skype, and bypass using minutes on their wireless systems.
Nokia also is talking to other companies about incorporating their Internet communication software onto the device, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Meanwhile, telecommunications companies potentially have more control over what services they offer their customers than traditional Internet companies do. For example, Cingular Wireless is getting its search and portal services for its MEdia Net from InfoSpace and bypassing major Internet companies such as Google and Yahoo.
Google wasn't immediately available for comment. Nokia said it will make an announcement with Google on Tuesday but didn't provide any further details.
-By Carmen Fleetwood, of Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-5216; carmen.fleetwod@dowjones.com
(Roger Cheng, Chris Reiter, Ellen Sheng and Mark Boslet contributed to this story.)
(END) Dow Jones Newswires "
Posted to the site on 13th May 2006
Posted to: www.cellular-news.com/story/17361.php