Also see: The Gphone is coming; how Google could rewrite the rules 

We’ve been waiting a long time to hear from Google about its mobile plans and the so-called Gphone or Google-powered phones. According to one report, that wait may be over soon.

The Wall Street Journal today said Google is expected to announce within the next two weeks advanced software and services that would allow handset makers to bring Google-powered phones to market by next summer. Google’s goal is to make applications and services as accessible on cellphones as they are on the Internet.

To compliment the WSJ’s story, Reuters noted that Google is in active talks with Verizon, the No. 2 carrier in the U.S., about putting Google applications on phones it offers.

This could be one of those defining moments. You know, the kind that change an industry. Like the iPod, for instance. Only this time it’s a phone. Not the Google phone, but the Skype phone.

See, the Skype phone, introduced today in the U.K., has the potential to be revolutionary, not evolutionary, if done well. People will place calls using the Internet, or what’s known as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). The calls are essentially free, or very low cost to the end user, because they use the Internet and not a service provider’s network.

Until now, most Skype calls have been made from computers attached to fixed-line Internet connections. Users call each other around the world wearing uncomfortable microphone headsets that, for the most part, look like something an air traffic controller would wear. Skype has gotten a bit more mobile in the past year — at least around the house — with the advent of Skype-enabled phone-to-computer bridges and portable handsets.

But Skype users have never left home with an actual Skype phone. Until now. Skype and 3, the fifth-largest mobile carrier in the U.K., have teamed together to launch a new affordable handset that lets people make free Skype-to-Skype calls and send Skype instant messages at no cost. It’s the first time an operator has offered a mass market phone tailor-made for free calling over the Internet.

I had to rub my eyes when I saw this: Apple is opening up the iPhone to third party developers.

“Let me just say it: We want native third party applications on the iPhone, and we plan to have an SDK (software developers kit) in developers’ hands in February,” Apple CEO Steve Jobs wrote in a noted (signed “Steve”) on the Hot News page.

Really? Huh. Just two weeks ago, Apple announced the opening of an iPhone Web Apps Directory on its site. The directory move was seen as Apple reinforcing its commitment to the Web-based apps approach.

Those who hoped for third-party applications on the iPhone sighed, shook their collective heads, and wondered why. Why is it taking Apple so long to deliver third-party apps?

Jobs explained, “It will take until February to release an SDK because we’re trying to do two things diametrically opposed things at once — provide an advanced and open platform to developers while at the same time protect iPhone users from viruses, malware, privacy attacks, etc.

“This is no easy task. Some claim that viruses and malware are not a problem on mobile phones—this is simply not true. There have been serious viruses on other mobile phones already, including some that silently spread from phone to phone over the cell network. As our phones become more powerful, these malicious programs will become more dangerous. And since the iPhone is the most advanced phone ever, it will be a highly visible target.”