Imagine if you had a car and it required Windows as an operating system, just like a computer. Maybe sometime it wouldn't start, so you'd have to reboot. Or upgrade it, or get new software every time you want to change the tires or install new windshield wipers.

Crazy, right?

Well, it's an extreme example, but why is it that our cellphones are on different networks — and locked? And why are we locked into interminable contracts that bind us further to their network every time we want to get a new phone or change features? It's nuts!

Recently, Wall Street Journal tech guru Walt Mossberg wondered the same thing. And yesterday, it was reported that Google is going to lead a coalition to develop a new standard (operating system) for cellphones. The Open Handset Alliance, announced Monday, unites 34 companies to bring wireless phones with better Internet browsers to market.

Notably absent from the coalition — which includes Sprint and T-Mobile — are AT&T and Verizon... and Microsoft, who must be sulking on the sidelines, at least. But that's now. They could all join later when things actually begin to happen.

After all, the goal of this venture, according to the Google Guys, is to go Open Source and allow sharing and collaboration.

It could happen!

And maybe then, a single network with interoperability could happen, too.