weeks - 3:43 pm on Oct 30, 2007 (gmt 0)

For those who have yet to attempt to develop any web services for mobile, let me advise you that the industry is in very real need of someone with the clout of Google to step in and straighten out this mess.

I'll quote Walter Mossberg in the 10/22/07 WSJ:

A shortsighted and often just plain stupid federal government has allowed itself to be bullied and fooled by a handful of big wireless phone operators for decades now. And the result has been a mobile phone system that is the direct opposite of the PC model. It severely limits consumer choice, stifles innovation, crushes entrepreneurship, and has made the U.S. the laughingstock of the mobile-technology world, just as the cellphone is morphing into a powerful hand-held computer. Whether you are a consumer, a hardware maker, a software developer or a provider of cool new services, it's hard to make a move in the American cellphone world without the permission of the companies that own the pipes. While power in other technology sectors flows to consumers and nimble entrepreneurs, in the cellphone arena it remains squarely in the hands of the giant carriers.

I've gone from looking at Google's interest in this with a yawn to watching it with keen interest.

I know many worry about Google's clout, but someone needs to do something here and it will take someone with clout.