Google’s gift:

Two of the biggest technology stories of 2007 have been stories about phones — the solid achievement of Apple’s iPhone, released during the summer, and the news,

announced on Monday, that Google will help orchestrate, develop and fund a new open software standard for mobile phones. Some people were disappointed by Google’s announcement, if only because there was no actual gadget to hold in their hands. But it was possibly as groundbreaking in its own way as the iPhone itself.

Google has said that it will release a new software platform called Android to developers next week and it will work with a coalition of major players in the technology sector, known as the Open Handset Alliance. What Google seems to be envisioning is software for mobile devices that will be more flexible and innovative than most of us are used to seeing on our cellphones.

Google’s move poses a direct challenge to Microsoft, Apple, Nokia and other companies that have strong stakes in the cellphone status quo. Another winner is likely to be innovation. Google’s new model is betting that more minds are better, and that the future of the cellphone lies less in the phone itself than in its role as a device capable of connecting in any number of ways to the world — real and virtual — around it.