Erick appeared on Fox Business last night to talk about the recent $3.2 billion WiMax deal between Sprint Nextel and Clearwire that’s expected to go through.

He tries to discuss the questionableness of the deal from a business standpoint despite the promises of WiMax as a technology. However, there’s clearly some frustration that Cavuto would rather talk about the future of mobile devices in general, and his daughter’s technology habits in particular, rather than analyze the viability of the deal.

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Rich Tehrani over at TMCNet is reporting that Google may be looking at buying mobile phone network operator Sprint.

Although it would be easy to scoff at the rumor (and it’s still very much in the unlikely bracket) as we know Google’s ambitions have no bounds. America’s 5th largest company is already trying to buy mobile spectrum in the United States, and is considering a similar move in the United Kingdom. Google also has its own mobile phone operating system on the way. The acquisition of Sprint may be unlikely, but so would the three moves listed here have been to anyone talking about Google 12 months ago.

I do like Matthew Ingram’s argument though relating to the constant Google takeover rumors:

it’s because Google has effectively become the saviour of everything. What was once a tiny company with a simple service that everyone used and/or liked has become a globe-spanning colossus with a market value bigger than the gross domestic product of a medium-sized country — and so the implication is that Google can do anything.

There’s a whole lot of old-world businesses with declining market caps that could become Google targets, particularly as Google starts to hit growth barriers across its core business lines. Car manufacturers are cheap at the moment (you can run Google ads on a screen in the car) and the Airlines are in a spot of bother as well. OK, maybe too far fetched…at least for another 12 months anyway

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If things go well, we might finally see that Gphone by the middle of next year. Google is in heated talks with wireless carriers in the U.S., including Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile, (and Vodafone internationally) to carry the Gphone, reports the WSJ. Google already competes (and cooperates) with some of these carriers. It recently fought with Verizon, for instance, over the rules of the upcoming 700 Mhz wireless spectrum auctions, while it is partnering with Sprint on its upcoming Wimax network. The only carrier not mentioned is AT&T, which carries the iPhone.

When the Gphone does come out, chances are that there won’t be just one Gphone, but many. In the next two weeks, Google is also expected, says the WSJ, “to announce new software and services that handset makers could use to build customized Google-powered phones.” Just as in social networking, Google wants to make mobile phones an open platform that developers can build lots of applications on top of. We may very well see a mobile 2.0 platform war brewing between the Gphone, the iPhone, Windows Mobile, and Nokia’s Ovi.

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