Google and Samsung partner for mobile applications

Despite rumors of an Apple/Google partnership in the mobile space (Eric Schmidt joining the Board of Directors doesn't equal a partnership, people), Google has announced a partnership with handset manufacturer Samsung to bring Google web applications to mobile phones. Google's trademark search, runaway hit Gmail and the Orwellian Google Maps will come pre-packaged on some Samsung phones starting in "early 2007." It's nice to see Google side-stepping the carriers (who would undoubtedly want to charge extra for the apps) and integrating their applications at the hardware level, especially when it comes to must-have mobile applications like Google Maps and Gmail. Google may still be feeling burned by Opera (as our sister publication FierceWireless reported yesterday, the browser recently dumped Google Search for it's mobile browsers, opting instead for Yahoo) but if they can manage to make more deals like this, Google will come built-into your phone, whether you like it or not.

For more on the Google/Samsung deal:
- see this post on CNET's Crave blog