Opus Research, which released the forecast last week, said that improving the mobile user experience will drive ad revenue growth, which will prompt more people to spend more time using the Internet via their cell phones.

In addition to Google, all other major providers of online services, like AOL, Yahoo and Microsoft, are busy tweaking their Web sites and Web applications for use via mobile phones.

As the Google deal takes its final shape, it appears more and more likely that it might pit Google against its traditional ally Apple, and align it with carriers that have been hurt by the success of the iPhone.

Although the platform will be available to anyone, including Apple, it could indirectly accelerate the pace at which competing handsets catch up with the iPhone's user experience innovations.

A few weeks ago, Apple announced it will release a software development kit so that third-party developers can build applications for the iPhone. It expects to make it available in February.

If Apple is absent from the partner list in Monday's announcement, it could signal that Steve Jobs's company views the Google platform as a negative development in the mobile market, an interesting situation, considering Google's CEO Eric Schmidt sits on Apple's board.

The intensity of this weekend's negotiations is not surprising, but rather reflective of the bold undertaking Google has assumed in the notoriously complicated world of dealmaking in the wireless market.

As has been reported previously, the components of the Google platform will not be delivered until at least mid-2008. At some point, the effort might even yield a Google-branded phone, sources said.