Google Joins Apple in Race to Launch Mobiles in Europe

Several leading European mobile phone companies are being courted by Apple and Google as the American technology giants look to bring their own mobile phones to European consumers.

Apple wants to secure a deal with a single pan-European network for the launch of its iPhone by the end of the year, with industry insiders suggesting Vodafone has emerged as an early front runner.

Google, meanwhile, has held talks with companies including Telefónica, owner of O2, about producing a "GPhone'"which would make it easy for users to search for information using their mobile handset.

It is believed to have hired the team who created the Sidekick mobile device which T-Mobile launched more than two years ago. The device, which has a keyboard hidden beneath a swivelling screen, gained notoriety in the US when a phone owned by Paris Hilton was hacked into and her address book posted on the internet.

Google has made no secret of the potential it sees in letting people access the internet while on the move, but progress towards compelling and easy to use internet-enabled mobile phones has been slow.

Google has already teamed up with several mobile operators, including Vodafone and T-Mobile, to bring its search engine to other phones. Last week O2 announced it had signed up Google as a partner for its German subsidiary, bringing the popular search engine to its users in a move that will also generate advertising revenue.

The company has also been forming partnerships with handset makers. In January it signed up the Korean manufacturer Samsung to put features including its search engine, Google Maps and its email service on to phones.

Recent speculation has centred on Samsung and Google developing an operating system to work on mobile phones. A Google phone with an operating system optimised for the internet would allow the California-based company to further experiment with the opportunities created by mobile advertising and search. Google would not comment on its plans.

This week its rival Yahoo! announced OneSearch, designed specifically for mobile phones. When a search term is entered, instead of producing a list of web links for the user to trawl through, it generates actual pages using the information found on the internet - such a search for a band bringing information including forthcoming concerts, popular ringtones and recent news. The service is being launched in the US. In Britain, the company has a deal with Orange, though this could be up for renegotiation.