Catching some industry analysts by surprise, news broke Monday evening that Verizon (News - Alert) Wireless plans to soon support the Android mobile platform developed by Google (News - Alert) and managed by the Open Handset Alliance.

 

BusinessWeek reporter Spencer Ante explained in a Monday evening report that Verizon’s decision to support Android (News - Alert) represents a U-turn for the company, which previously had been one of several carriers to withhold support for Google’s mobile platform.

 

Yet, given the announcement from Verizon only a few days earlier, that the carrier will be opening its wireless network to outside developers next year, the change of heart regarding Android makes sense.

 

In the BusinessWeek report, Ante quoted Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam as explaining that the Android announcement culminates a year’s worth of evolution in the company’s strategy, which involved intense meetings with both the Federal Communications Commission and Verizon Wireless’ partial parent Verizon Communication (the company is co-owned by Vodafone (News - Alert)).

 

Ultimately, the result of all those meetings was a change in strategy for Verizon Wireless more toward network openness and open standards and away from proprietary reality of the past.

 

“We’re planning on using Android,” McAdam was quoted as saying, tellingly, in the BusinessWeek report. “Android is an enabler of what we do.”

 

What Verizon Wireless does is changing, based largely on the need to combat market saturation, Ante said in the BusinessWeek report. Ante explained that, although Verizon Wireless has created the most profitable cellular business in the U.S., the company has concluded it can’t afford to rest on its laurels.

 

The Android announcement hints that, perhaps, even bigger changes can be expected down the road from Verizon Wireless. A GearLog report Tuesday, for example, proposed the idea that the next announcement from the carrier that never stops working for Americans might be its intention to bid in the FCC’s (News - Alert) 700MHz spectrum auction scheduled for January. If Verizon Wireless does intend to bid, time is running out—it must submit an application and upfront payments by December 28, GearLog reported.

 

Only time will tell what lies ahead for Verizon Wireless and its customers. But clearly, the times they are a’ changing.