MAJOR PAPERS:

• Last November, Google Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) and 30 partners were said be developing a new type of handset using Android that was expected to revolutionize the industry. The first new phones were expected to be available in this year's second half but are now slated for the fourth quarter the Wall Street Journal reported.
• According to people familiar with the situation, the Wall Street Journal reported that Citigroup Incorporated (NYSE: C) will make sharp cuts in its investment banking division this week.
• The Wall Street Journal reported that Live Nation Inc's (NYSE: LYV) Chairman, Michael Cohl, stepped down down as a director and executive to end the strategy feud with CEO Michael Rapino. over how to pursue the "360 deals" with music superstars.
• The Financial Times reported that there are worries that investment banks will accelerate the pace of their layoffs this summer, after it became known that The Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE: GS) gave pink slips to workers in its investment banking division last week. Goldman is now expected to lay off up to 10% of the workers at the division.

OTHER PAPERS:

• New Jersey put its $150M center for stem cell research on hold, the Star Ledger reported, eight months after ground was broken on the project.

The NPD Group released its quarterly run-down on the mobile phone industry. The research organization, known for its comprehensive consumer and retail information, looks at quarterly sales numbers and compares the findings to its own historical numbers.

There is definitely some salient info for investors looking at or in the mobile phone market:

• Smart phone are on fire: "the percentage of smartphones sold during the third quarter increased from 4% of all phone sales in the third quarter of 2006 to 11% during the same timeframe in 2007 – an increase of 163% year over year."
• Convergence of musical devices with phones: "Fifty percent of new phones were able to play music in the third quarter of 2007 (double the prior year) and 11 percent were smartphones."

"The mobile phone market is not only growing, it is growing smarter," said Ross Rubin, director of industry analysis for NPD. "The nearly threefold increase in smartphones shows that this once negligible niche is becoming a more influential force in the consumer market -- attracting entrants such as Apple, Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) and the Open Handset Alliance."

While Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT) commanded the largest marketshare of the top 5 manufacturers at 31%, growth in the industry (47% year over year) is jacking up the competition. Apple has made a splash with the iPhone and its going to be interesting to see what route Google, Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG) is going to take with its rumored gPhone. Read Sheldon Liber's good analysis of what Google may be planning to do with a mobile platform.

As the iPhone gets more traction, it will be interesting to see what NPD's analysis will look like in a year from now.

Zack Miller is the Managing Editor of IsraelNewsletter.com and a former equity analyst for a leading multinational hedge fund. Disclosure: He holds a position in GOOG but none in the other stocks mentioned.

Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) said this week that it sweetened the pot on the hotly-anticipated "Android" mobile operating system platform announced last week. The sweetener? Offering cash prizes to Android developers who build applications for the new, open-source mobile platform.

Google is obviously trying to get as many quality developers on the Android platform as possible right from the start so that it can compete better with established platforms like Microsoft Corp.'s (NASDAQ: MSFT) Windows Mobile operating system. Although Google says it's not competing with any established platform -- but merely offering an open-source alternative -- that's the company's strategic mantra. After all, the "non-competition" it always claims is a ruse. Google is one of the most competitive companies on the technology landscape today.

The developer rewards program -- dubbed Android Developer Challenge -- is not something out of a sci-fi novel and will feature cash prizes ranging from $25,000 to $275,000. That is enough to encourage any developer to get on board. With Google having set aside $10 million just for the prize pot, and with many software developers preferring the open-source idea in the first place, Google may score another hit on the way to recruiting some fantastic programs to launch Android with next year.

Is Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG)'s 'gPhone' going to be a reality soon? Rumors of a Google-branded wireless handset have been floating in the air for more than a year in many circles, with everyone sounding off that it was a great idea or a completely stupid move. In my estimation, it's a great move for Google to do this if, in fact, the company is looking towards the future. So, let's run with that idea, shall we?

Although Yahoo!, Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) has had a stronger presence in the mobile space for years, Google has really ramped up its mobile efforts in the last few. The company, which derives almost every bit of that spectacular, current revenue from text ads on the web knows (like everyone) that there are far more mobile handsets in use than all the PCs in the world combined. The next frontier is the mobile one, and with Google probably frustrated at the locks and control many wireless carriers clamp on top of that mobile phone before the customer can use it, it probably wants "handset democratization" of sorts, kind of like the net neutrality it seeks regarding internet access for all.

Are current cellphones full of hard-to-use features and unnecessary complexity? By all means. Any current cellphone is so full of features that they are jacks of all trades -- but masters of none. My guess is that Google seeks to end that nonsense with its own branded handset, free of complexity and clampdowns by wireless carriers. Will the company make a new mobile phone from complete scratch, though? That would be quite an undertaking by any company, but Google has the money and moxy to do it.

Google wants to free customers from the shackles of servitude most carrier impose, like long-term contracts, overly-branded handsets and limitations on what customers can do. If Google can pull it off, it's next money-making machine may just lie outside web-based text ads. Wait -- maybe it will give these new handsets away free for having wireless text ads delivered to all those new wireless screens!

Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL) iphone and now the rumored Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) phone, keep piling on features until my head is swimming. However, they still fall short of providing those features I'd like in my "everything device". Here's a current draft of my desires. Please help me flesh this out. What features would you like to have in your everything device?

1. Phone to phone
2. Receive and send e-mail
3. Receive and send instant messages
4. Receive and send text messages
5. Internet access with seamless, intuitive browser
6. MP4 audio/video player
7. Games
8. Address book
9. Calendar
10. PC/laptop backup storage
11. Camera
12. Audio recorder
13. GPS unit
14. Calculator
15. Notepad
16. e-book reader
17. Fax send and receive
18. Thermometer
19. Garage door opener
20. Television & other home electronics remote control
21. Car lock & starter remote
22. UPC scanner
23. Bottle opener/corkscrew
24. Toothpick
25. Pill carrier
26. Flashlight

For some time, Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) has been piecing together a mobile strategy. It's absolutely essential and will mean a brutal war with Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO), Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) and other biggies.

In fact, there is a major piece in today's Wall Street Journal (subscription required) on the matter. For example, it looks like Google has been developing prototype handsets and talking with players like Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ) and AT&T (NYSE: T). Google's popular YouTube is already a prominent feature on Apple Inc.'s (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone.

To get some perspective on things, I had a chance to interview Omar Tawakol, who is a wireless expert and Chief Advertising Officer Medio Systems (which develops search and advertising services for mobile devices):

"Mobile Search is becoming an industry of its own. Naturally existing players from adjacent spaces want a piece of the growing pie. History has shown that new mediums usually have new winners. How many of the top 10 websites were media winners of the TV age?

"Google understands that ad monetization means that other services can be made cheaper. Carriers spend billions of dollars a year on building and maintaining infrastructure. Obviously carriers don't want to pay for infrastructure that someone else gives away for free. The white label solution is to work with the carriers and not compete with them.

"Much of mobile search still happens on-deck controlled by carrier relationships. That is a large portion of the searching population that Google still needs access to."

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including the Complete M&A Handbook and the EDGAR-Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.

As Doug McIntyre posted this morning, The Wall Street Journal reports that Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) is pushing a special cell phone [subscription required] that will help it grab a share of the small, but rapidly growing wireless advertising market. Specifically, Google may not only be pushing handsets customized to Google products, but eventually also developing its own handsets (it has developed a few prototypes already), thus facing conflicts with Apple Inc. 's (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone.

The wireless ad market is relatively small now but forecast to grow fast. In 2006, global spending on mobile-phone advertising, including placement of ads in text messages, Web pages, video and all other content, was only $1.5 billion -- growing at a 56% compound annual growth rate to $14 billion by 2011, according to eMarketer.

Not only that, but those revenues are likely to be more profitable than the typical online ad. Google CEO Eric Schmidt noted, "What's interesting about the ads in the mobile phone is that they are twice as profitable or more than the nonmobile phone ads because they're more personal."

How will Google grab its share of this lucrative and growing market?

Working to open up the broadband spectrum in the US is not enough. Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) wants consumers to connect their devices to the internet without having to pay charges to carriers, but its grand plan goes beyond that.

According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, Google is pushing both handset companies and cell carriers to use devices loaded with the search company's software. The company hopes that this foot-hold will allow it to become a leader in wireless advertising.

Several companies are recoiling from Google's advances. Verizon Wireless says Google wants too large a piece of the advertising carried on phones.

Google's plans may not work out. Handset companies and cell operators like T-Mobile have probably already convinced themselves that allowing consumers to download their own preferred search and GPS functions or to offer a broad spectrum of these services pre-loaded onto phones is the way to keep people happy. Not everyone want to use GMail or Google Maps.

Google wants to drive a wireless market where the hallmark is choice for the consumer. Open spectrum that allows devices to connect to broadband over the air would permit handset owners to use their phones to download a huge number of software applications without paying a toll.

But, Google's actions say that those applications should be the ones that it builds and not those from its competition.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.

Many would concede that analysts have been under an "iPhone spell," attempting to figure out what impact the upcoming mobile device from Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) could have on wireless devices and handsets from Palm Inc (NASDAQ: PALM) and Research in Motion Limited (NASDAQ: RIMM). What they may soon have to consider is what impact a rumored phone from Google Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) could have on the iPhone.

The Google phone, perhaps a joint effort with Samsung, could look like RIMM's BlackBerry with more Internet capabilities and could be code-named "Switch." Google could also be working with telecom giant Orange and High Tech Computer Corp - which DigiTimes.com reported was working on manufacturing Google handsets - to build a mobile phone with Google software and could perhaps go on sale in 2008.

A post on a blog written by Don Dodge, director of business development for Microsoft Corporation's (NASDAQ: MSFT) emerging business team, quoted Simeon Simeonov, former CTO of Allaire Corp, on what he feels could be Google's "go-to" market strategy for a phone: "Apparently, Google is planning to build distribution relationships with multiple carriers by allowing them to minimize subscription and marketing costs. In other words, Google will market the phone online and carriers will fulfill."

With the iPhone, Apple has promised customers a "new era" of media and information, but their no-third-party-software-allowed policy doesn't appear to bring an "open Internet" way of thinking to a device. Should Google go forward with this market strategy, it could really re-invent this type of device, which could be, essentially, a handheld computer, and blow Apple out of the water.

Someone in the mobile industry needs to start thinking "outside the box," and with Google's recent advances in areas like voice search technology and other applications, it might end up being the company to do just that. Even if, as some speculate, Google is investing in only the software side of things, it appears that it has many of the resources needed to reshape the industry.

Then again, on the news that Apple and Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ: CSCO) are looking to work together to make Apple's device compatible with Cisco's business and consumer equipment, as reported by Apple Insider, maybe Apple has some tricks left up its sleeves. Either way, a competition between the two should be interesting, to say the least.

As Brian White wrote earlier, Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) officially claimed it is not entering the direct cell phone business. It's a smart decision for Google. It is not used to being the secondary player in any business it engages in. Possible partnerships with carriers is a more sensible route if Google does enter the phone business. Google is an online company, providing online service, and not a physical company with hard, touch and feel products.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), on the other hand, is a touch and feel company and would be an extremely formidable foe if Google decided to go "hard-line." Apple has two major advantages and will exploit them to the max: the iPod and the Mac as well as the retail store outlets.

The cell phone business is a retail, physical, touch and feel business. Consumers want to hold that phone and play with a phone's features before buying a certain model. The iPhone will be a mega success due to the retail store system that Apple has brilliantly developed. With 173 stores in strategic locations around the world, Apple will pick all the low-hanging fruit with the iPhone in the first quarter it is available. Google's business model has not encountered any physical products and this could prove to be uncharted waters for it.

Setting up carrier relationships using Google technology may be a wise business decision, but at the end of the day, the customer still wants to test that phone before buying.

It's Apple's game to control and win...

Georges Yared is the author of "Stop Losing Money Today" and "Baby Boomer Investing". Please visit www.georgesyared.com

Looks like Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) may not be producing the rumored Google-branded mobile phone after all -- even after a European Google exec recently hinted at the search giant's plans to enter the mobile phone hardware (and software) business.

Our friends over at Engadget just posted on this, quoting a Google exec from Southeast Asia who concludes that the company may get into the mobile handset business someday soon -- but on the software side of things. This makes sense, since the mobile phone handset market is already so crowded from the low end to the bleeding edge that it would make very little sense for Google to enter a hardware market where such a large investment may never fully pay itself back.

On the software side of things, however, Google's trademarked simplicity would probably be sought after by mobile phone users everywhere, which is why many Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) fanatics and normal, everyday cellphone users are probably waiting on pins and needles for the new Apple iPhone to be released. If Apple holds true to form, the new iPhone will be one of the easiest handsets ever to use in terms of user interface. Can Google be far behind?

It seems that with all the hype surrounding Apple Inc.'s (NASDAQ:AAPL) rumored, then confirmed, iPhone, that rumors about a possible Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) mobile phone remained somewhat in the shadows. A few tech blogs picked up a story back in December about an Orange and Google partnership, but other than that, not much was written about the subject.

In January, some pictures of the Google Switch were released, but they looked fake enough to be discounted. Still, speculation that Google has been working on its own hardware has been growing. Then, yesterday, Engadget posted about a supposed marketing survey about the Google Phone. Again, the reliability of this is in question. From this alleged survey (larger view): "The Google Phone, designed by Samsung, is a very thin and stylish handset with a large screen and a QWERTY keypad so that it provides a real internet experience."

Over at Engadget they're wondering if Apple's iPhone could get some real competition. Not only does the Google Phone have all of Google's services for PCs, it includes 3G data, WiFi, and a two-megapixel camera, among other features. Last, but definitely not least, it might be a lot cheaper than the iPhone -- with a "flat-rate data service and a three-month trial."

If you recall, CEO Eric Schmidt said that "your mobile phone should be free," and I'd assume he plans, like all other Google services, to make money off advertising. The question is, would you rather pay $499 for the iPhone and get an ad-free experience, or would you rather be inundated with ads but pay much less?

If any of the rumors are indeed true, I guess we'll have to wait and see what consumers prefer.