Any notion that Google's Android software would be welcomed by the European mobile operator community has failed following its rejection by Vodafone and Orange.
While the likes of Google, Yahoo and others claim to want to partner with the mobile operators, promising favourable revenue share deals, the majority remain wary of the arrival of these new entrants, seeing only disruption to their long-established business models. Earlier this year Arun Sarin, Vodafone CEO, warned fellow mobile operators that unless they moved faster they risked "having their lunch eaten" by Internet giants like Google.
However, Google has gained some support having signed-up T-Mobile and Telefonica to its new handset operating system that the company claims will 'make it easier and smoother for subscribers to tap into the Internet on the move'.
While there will be no Google-branded devices, with the focus being on software rather than on hardware, the company stated that it had more than 30 partners in its project, including the handset makers Motorola and HTC.
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