Google’s “phone” isn’t a phone at all, it’s far more important, it’s a phone OS that goes on all kinds of phones much like the MS Mobile OS. Google’s phone OS is about creating a platform to enable more Google Ads penetration, the MS phone OS is about continuing desktop dominance by “owning” the most pervasive technology people have. Both have a lot in common aside from not caring what they run on and openly encouraging you to install applications, their most important aspect is the phone carrier is simply an access provider.

While apple’s Iphone is great for a lot of reasons, it’s still part of Jobs’ walled garden of control. Sure, Apple fans have come to completely ignore all of the controls in place while chanting about how free they are, but at the end of the day they’re as free as Steve lets them be. Since they dont care and he’s happy I guess it’s a marriage made in heaven.

For those not suckling at the Cupertino teat, there are a myriad of other things to contend with. An inferior UI for starters but that’s a moot point. More to the actual point, if you wanted a device that didnt cater to the phone companies insistance to use their version of the internet (that fake, branded internet, go only where we let you go WAP garbage) you had to use a Palm (see 10 year old OS) or more recently, the MS Mobile OS.

MS Mobile 6 is almost great. It’s still a little clunky and IE is a bit painful, some apps keep running in the background making the whole phone slow, but overall, it’s a complete break from the fake internet that the carriers are so in love with. The carriers have this idea that people don’t want the real internet, that they’re happy with a mini version that only has ringtones, themes, backgrounds and their feeds. I’ll grant you that it’s convenient to have access to that for just those things but after I’ve put the Hello Kitty theme on my phone with the Lost soundtrack ringtone, I want some hawt, real, Internets on my device.

The carriers also feel very strongly that people cannot, under any circumstances, be trusted to install anything on their phones. The idea that you can do so on a MS phone is abhorrent to them and if you need support on a Smartphone they’ll most likely force you to reset it to the factory image (kept on the phone for just that case) before letting you get any more support. Often this does actually fix the issue…

Google’s new OS doesn’t really pay any mind to that walled garden nonsense. It encourages new apps, goes right to the Internet and is phone agnostic. In effect it makes the carrier truly a dumb pipe. T-Mobile and Sprint have never cared that much about being a transit for data, they’re happy to charge a few dollars a month for the access (T-Mobile has very slow Internet, Sprint is decent) but AT&T and Verizon, the two that “matter” are uninterested in being a dump pipe and possibly losing control of people getting new phones every year that lock them into contracts over and over again. They like it just as it is.

Here’s the problem, as much as they like it as it is and the telcos are famous for being change-averse, they dont have much to do with it. Technology and options are changing quickly and the stranglehold the wireless carriers has a shelf life we can count now in single digit years. They can adapt or go the way of the wagon wheel superstore. 10 years from now the concept of a telephone company will be a funny antique idea like having a fax machine around. They’re still around to cater to those people who are too old or to unsavvy to migrate away. Everyone else will have mobile devices that hop connections between verior versions of WiMax, WiFi and GSM. Phone numbers may exist but will be parallel to URLs and IM names. Skype will probably be the backbone along with other IM providers and the idea of paying for a call based on distance will be completely laughable.

Fight as they will, it’s a losing battle. If wireless providers want to prepare for their future as bandwidth providers they need to have a strategy to make that their selling point. I want 100Mbit 2-way connectivity at my phone, complete coverage, phones that allow for video skype, agreements with international carriers for roaming all under a single line item on a bill I can read.

In the end, a few years from now the devices we carry will not be part of any garden. The carriers will be different and some will not be around. THe consumer will win this one. There is no arguing this point, it is the future.