Google CEO says look forward to more Google/iPhone announcements

Here's the deal: Google is not going to be just another developer. Apple and Google are building their own cloud. The iPhone is just a thin client, and local apps just don't make much sense when the whole point of the device is to be connected to the cloud. (And as Gerald Buckley perceptively pointed out at #3 above, Google Gears will allow for running web apps locally. Note to Billy: Obviously Gears is going to be pre-installed or installed on an update.)

Watch for Apple to partner with google in a complete top to bottom revamp of dot mac, which will be the beginning of the Apple/Google cloud. Watch Apple push WebObjects as the iPhone web app SDK. Watch WebObjects form the basis of an SDK for building storefronts and websites on Google.

This is an audacious plan. Perhaps even grandiose. But all the elements are there between Google and Apple. They're going to trump MySpace, Ebay, and Yahoo in one swoop by creating the tools and the environment for a new cloud.

@Ben - I think you will find both camps not only willing but eager.

Interesting, though is the fact that Apple will probably not invest to make iWork on the iPhone. But if google's web apps will work, why not advertise that there is now a spreadsheet, word processor, etc. all available for the iPhone. It might take tweaking on both apple and google's sides, but if they are willing to both invest, I think the iPhone benefits. I'm for it!

Well, they could have avoided the whole Yahoo thing if they would have just added push-IMAP to their gmail offering...

Hmmm, two-way syncing of calendars and address book? Sounds a lot like .mac...

I find it somewhat disconcerting that Google, a company famous for creating highly functional web apps is excused from drinking the same kool-aid that Apple wants to pour down other developers' throats.

Why? Probably because you can't do the kinds of things Google wants to do with their apps -- like fill the entire screen, do things in the background, save settings locally, work offline, or experiment with a mult-touch interface.

I guess by "Sweet" Jobs meant "Sweeter than Strychnine, nut just barely!"

The problem with this idea is that Gears requires a runtime component (sort of a small VM) which users of Gears-based apps must install (once per system, not app) and iPhone, so far, doesn't permit users to install apps. Right? Of course Apple could include the Gears runtime, either at launch or some future update but so far no one has said this will happen.

Mmmmmm, IMAP and Gmail. Doesn't that phrase just roll off the tongue like butta'?

Gears is the secret sauce that will make Safari 3 sing... provided they let the Leopard engineers back into the iPhone shed to apply the Jobsian polish to the WebKit nightly builds.

To hell with apps, how about imap on gmail?