Phil Leigh of Inside Digital Media interviewed me last week on Google’s Android and other industry topics. The podcast is available here. The conclusions he drew from the chat:

Our guest today is Chetan Sharma who is the Founder of Sharma Consulting. His firm specializes in strategy and intellectual property consulting in the wireless industry. Last week we heard from Alan Reiter who is the founder of the Wireless Internet and Mobile Computing consulting firm, and this interview provides a second opinion.  Here are a number of Chetan’s conclusions:

1. Google will decline to bid on the block of 700MHz spectrum that the FCC will auction next year.
2. The bidders will likely be the conventional wireless carriers and perhaps some cable TV companies.

3. It will take several years before the Google cell phone operating system, Android, can be widely deployed, if ever.
4. Even should Android be widely deployed, each carrier will be able to unilaterally determine just how open their systems shall be.
5. Despite number 4 above, Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo, shall become much more influential in the mobile space. The carriers will no longer have the near dominance that they historically have enjoyed.
6. Look for future innovations on the “third screen” to increasingly come from China and India, as opposed to Japan and Korea.

CTIA’s podcast (US Wireless Market) is also easily accessible here (mp3 file)