With the impending release of Android handsets, Google has announced two key components of its Android mobile platform: the Chrome browser and the Android Market content distribution system.

Chrome borrows elements from Apple's WebKit and Mozilla's Firefox and is Google's attempt to go after the browser market by creating a modern platform for image-rich Web pages and interactive applications. Android Market is an open content distribution system that will help consumers find, buy, download and install applications on their Android-powered devices -- basically Google's answer to the iTunes App Store.

"It makes a lot of sense that Google would compete with Apple's App Store and create more of an open market Synthesis TookKit to let people develop applications on top of it," said Michael Wolf, research director of ABI Research, New York.

"As for the Chrome announcement, Google is coming out with its own browser to create a more customizable open source for Web applications that is less desktop-centric and better able to handle memory management while running richer apps and Java script," he said.

In addition to the Android Market announcement, Google has added a new open source sample application called Photostream to its apps-for-android project. Photostream is a simple photo browser and viewer for Yahoo's Flickr.

Google also recently announced the winners of the Android Developer Challenge, an effort to drive innovation in the development of mobile applications for its mobile platform.

Google's Chrome browser will be integrated into the Android platform. Google has released a beta version of Chrome for Windows and is working on versions for Mac and Linux.

Chrome is organized by keeping each browser tab in an isolated "sandbox," which reportedly prevents one tab from crashing another and provides improved protection from rogue sites.

Chrome will run on V8, which Google claims is a more powerful JavaScript engine that has improved the browser's speed and responsiveness.

"Google's pitch is that older browsers were built in a time when text was the predominant format on the Web, but now they're not fast enough to meet the needs of video and advanced applications," Mr. Wolf said. "Like Apple, this offers the potential for customization from a user interface standpoint."

This announcement is about much more than a simple need for speed and user-friendliness, however.

"Ultimately this represents a two-screen strategy for Google on both PC and mobile, and potentially Chrome Browser could even be pushed onto TV screens to make it a three-screen browser," Mr. Wolf said. "This will give them a foundation to distribute content and Web apps."

One of the biggest questions stemming from Google's play is what effects its open-source model will have on the industry as a whole.

"You've seen Nokia say that they're going to make Symbian an open-source operating environment as well," Mr. Wolf said. "This could represent a larger-scale trend, and Google does tend to be on the vanguard of these things."

It will be interesting to see how Microsoft -- a long-time player with its Internet Explorer and Windows Mobile products -- and other competitors react to Google's mobile initiatives.

"I don't see Microsoft opening up Windows, although we are seeing the continued trend of a move toward Linux due to the strength of LiMo and Google and a move away from entirely closed down operating systems," Mr. Wolf said.

"You're going to see more Linux-powered smartphones coming out," he said.

Google will have to flex its muscles to squeeze ad dollars out of the mobile channel.

Google and Verizon Wireless are said to be nearing a deal that would add the Internet giant's search interface to the carrier's mobile devices, thus opening up the mobile marketing space (see story).

"Ultimately the success of Android will be tied to strength of Google's monetization on the PC side and their ability to drive targeted advertising into some of these mobile applications," Mr. Wolf said.

"They'll explore paid content, paid applications and other hooks into their robust existing monetization strategy, and is search a big part of it as well," he said.

Google's recent moves highlight the incredible potential the search giant sees for the mobile space.

"Google is the dominant search provider on PCs, and they realize that the majority of growth as far as Web usage will be on handsets," Mr. Wolf said. "They'll seek out various cross-platform tie-ins between the mobile Web and the PC Web, although the domains will largely remain separate.

"The Chrome announcement is a sign that browsers are getting better and that helps to make the overall user experience better," he said.

There has been a healthy dose of skepticism expressed about the Android platform, however.

Some critics have argued that the buzz is missing from the marketing efforts leading up to the first Android-powered handsets. Others doubt that the initial reach of Android will be significant enough to seriously impact competitors.

"If you look at the Android mobile version of Chrome, at a tactical level the impact in the short-to-medium term will be very limited," said Saurav Chopra, director of business development for Byte Mobile, Mountain View, CA. "For mobile platforms, distribution is absolutely key."

Wireless carrier T-Mobile will launch a smartphone powered by Google's Android software before the end of the year to compete with players such as Microsoft, Research In Motion, Apple and Palm (see story).

"Android and Chrome would need to get strong distribution, and a couple of handsets from HTC is not going to help that," Mr. Chopra said. "Android handsets have to have a decent install base."

However, the long-term impact of Google entering the browser and operating system markets is a different story.

"If you take a look at high-level impact, however, it will incredible," Mr. Chopra said. "The reason Nokia bought Symbian was because Android is an open-source platform."

Nokia Corp.'s decision to buy the 52 percent of Symbian it didn't already own may threaten Google's Android and Microsoft's Windows Mobile operating systems (see story).

"Operators and manufacturers will open up the system so that developers have access to handset APIs and in the future network APIs, and it will force a rethink among operators and manufacturers as far as business models," Mr. Chopra said.

"Operators in much better position to drive value of advertising, and they have to ask themselves how best to leverage the immense wealth of information they have to drive a new business model on open networks, open systems like Android," he said.

Competition in the mobile ecosystem is fierce, but with the market growing steadily, there are niches in which various industry players can thrive.

"The iPhone has kick-started the mobile Internet and made it available to average man and woman in the street, and a few years down the road, people with Android handsets will be accessing the open Internet and mobile Web apps much, much more than in the past," Mr. Chopra said. "Overall, the usage from end users is going to skyrocket.

"Looking at the big picture, this is not about Google or Apple getting a bigger chunk of the pie," he said. "The overall size of the pie will increase tremendously."