Google has developed prototype cellphones to carry its search engine and new mobile web browser and approached wireless operators including T-Mobile USA and Verizon Wireless in an attempt to make further inroads into the cellphone market.

Google's aim, according to the Wall Street Journal, is to capture a large portion of the growing market for ads on cellphones.

"We are partnering with almost all of the carriers and manufacturers to get Google search and other Google applications onto their devices and networks," a Google spokesman told the Journal.

The No. 1 Internet search engine company intends to be a participant in the January auction of US$15 billion worth of public airwaves being given up by television stations as they convert to digital broadcast.

Google could eventually become a phone operator with the purchase of part of the wireless spectrum. But of more pressing concern is the company's effort to forge deals with wireless operators to carry its existing products and its ads.

Worldwide spending on mobile-phone advertising totaled US$1.4 billion last year, but that figure is expected to grow to nearly US$14 billion by 2011, according to the market research company eMarketer.

The Google-ready cellphone envisioned by the company would include cameras for photos and video, Wi-Fi capability for wireless access to the Internet, and Global Positioning System technology.

(Xinhua News Agency via Agencies August 4, 2007)