Google: Shields Up and Mobile Ad Torpedoes Armed

New information on Android from Electronista.  From the read of it, Google is doing exactly what many have speculated about Google leveraging its dominance in online ads to lower costs and fight the mobile war in its own way with arsenal no one else has.

First of all, Google is not going to do what Apple did by licensing Exchange.  This alone shows the strategy Google may be employing to win the market.  And by getting this out early, perhaps it'll stunt any critical arguments about the move, something analysts and critics lamented about the original iPhone.

For the iPhone, it may be a part of a larger enterprise strategy to get the Mac and the iPhone into corporations, to be a Blackberry killer as it is.  Google is clearly going about this differently.  Make Android phones accessible to everyone who wants one as as it did with Google search and, now, the Google apps.  Do it as cheaply as it can.  (Hopefully, still sticking with it's "do no evil" 

If the reports are correct, could Google will be going head to head with Apple more than anyone else?   

Here are few things to keep in mind for the Android phone:

• Push mail with Google mail, currently, not something offered on the iPhone except for Yahoo and MobileMe.  I'm guess it'll probably work day one.  No Exchange.  This is interesting.  Not going up to proliferate Exchange dominance.  May try to circumvent Exchange and challenge Microsoft if Gmail push gains wider acceptance.
• Lower cost of phone or rates through advertising.  This has been what pundits and Google well-wishers have been speculating about and it looks like it may happen.  This will be a boon to mobile subscribers.  However, we'll have to go back to the issues of privacy.  One in particular that comes to mind is location-based advertising.  I suspect that just as with the initial concerns from Gmail advertising, this will quickly go away once people like the convenience and lower costs.
  
• T-Mobile app store.  Many are predicting a more open developer environment than Apple's iPhone SDK.  We'll have to wait and see if that's going to be a good thing or not.
• No mention of multi-touch despite the Webkit (same Web rendering engine as iPhone's Safari).  This is not to say the multi-touch and Webkit are tied together.  So far, I've yet to see another multi-touch smartphone in the wild.  It makes a big difference with how things are accomplished on a handheld.

There you have it.  There is again speculation about the release date but we're still looking at 2008 until Google or HTC says otherwise.

Let the next round of iPhone killer from analysts and tech magazines begin.

Note:  Phandroid has FCC information.  This is a good sign.  Everyone at Onxo is very excited.