Announcements from wireless providers signal changes in industry

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NULLLike rapid-fire text messengers, companies providing software and serves to the wireless market came out with an onslaught of changes last week.

Verizon Wireless, in the Basking Ridge section of Bernards, and Google Inc., in Mountain View, Calif., formed a strategic partnership to bring Google’s Android operating system to wireless devices operating on the Verizon network. The companies will collaborate to see the Android platform pre-installed on handsets and netbooks.

“The whole notion of exclusivity that you must use the applications that the network provider endorses is gradually going to wither away,” said Robert Rosenberg, president of telecom market research firm The Insight Research Corp., in Boonton.

The popularity of mobile apps led to growing pains even for the likes of Apple Inc., which generated the initial buzz for the market with its iPhone on AT&T’s wireless network.

Voice over IP service provider Vonage Holdings Corp., in Holmdel, last week released Vonage Mobile, an app that lets the iPhone and other devices make international and domestic calls through Vonage. AT&T changed its policy to allow VoIP apps such as Vonage Mobile to operate on the cellular network, not just over Wi-Fi. The carrier also is in talks to release phones pre-installed with Android.