Nicholas Carr’s mobile demands are pretty straightforward: he wants a Google cloud behind his iPhone.  In a piece entitled “Google, Apple and the future of mobile computing” he puts forward a persuasive argument for why the next stage in ultraportable technology will build upon the established relationship between the search giant and Cupertino, with Apple building the gadgets and the UI’s that people so adore while Google lends its weight to the mainframe serving everything up in the background.

“Apple is taking responsibility for “the user interface and people.” It’s designing the devices themselves, which will be typically elegant machines that run versions of OS X. While Apple puts together the front end of the integrated network-computing system, Google provides “the perfect back end” – the supercomputer that provides the bulk of the data-processing might and storage capacity for the devices” Nicholas Carr

It’s a concept based on the same principles of the low-cost, relatively closed ecosystem ASUS Eee and the sort of advertisement-funded service that many predict will flavour Google’s potential expansion into cellular wireless.  Carr envisages a highly efficient, low maintenance appliance client that stores and backups its media on Google’s all-seeing servers.

Not exactly a new idea, per se, but one with gathering momentum and ever-more potential truth to it.  Imagine, for instance, if Google won the 700MHz auction come January 2008 – then, you wouldn’t even have to rent broadband from your local telco, your simple internet appliance would just connect whenever, wherever.

What do you think, would you buy into the Google/Apple ecosystem?  Or do you reckon that the natural tendency of many to want to tweak and hack – as shown with Jailbreak and the rush to bring third-party apps to the iPhone – will prevail stronger than people’s desire for a stable, perhaps locked down experience?  Let us know in the comments.

[via Life on the Wicked Stage]