Verizon’s Chief Executive, Lowell McAdam, said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. “We’re working on tablets together, for example. We’re looking at all the things Google has in its archives that we could put on a tablet to make it a great experience.”

He has not yet set a date by which this tablet could be launched nor has he mentioned which company would manufacture it.

Andy Rubin of Google feels that in the future software developers could write programmes that would run on both Android mobile phones as well as on the tablet, in the same manner as apps are being used on the iPhone as well as on the iPad.

The iPad, created by Apple and supported by AT&T, has become so popular that rivals of both these companies are trying hard to regain market share lost due to the launch of these devices.

As consumers use their mobile phones for a wider variety of purposes, from downloading content to browsing the Internet, it is but natural that the demand for light-weight portable computers is on the rise worldwide. The demand for netbooks, tablets and e-readers is growing. This is confirmed by the fact that Apple sold 1 million iPads in just 1 month after its launch.

Google had offered a first glimpse of the Chrome OS for Tablets back in February, just after the launch of the iPad, which led many to believe that Google was planning to release its own Apple iPad or Amazon Kindle rival. The latest announcement is a small surprise, only because they’ve decided to use Android OS, which is more mobile-oriented rather than the Chrome OS, which is more desktop-oriented.

Verizon-Google’s new device will offer many interesting services and high transfer speeds. McAdam believes that the system of one-price plan per device is likely to change in the near future and users will have to pay more for the facilities they will be provided with.

Apple and Google aren’t the only ones gunning for market share. Dell and Toshiba have also announced that they are working on a tablet, and Hewlett-Packard has said that they plan to buy over Palm to start their own line of tablet PCs.

Google continues to top the list, growing in value from $86 billion last year to $100 billion in 2009, which represents a growth of 16%. Google is followed by rival, Microsoft, which climbed up one position from last year with a current value of $76.2 billion – also up 8% over last year.

Yahoo! has fallen from number 62 last year to number 81 this year, and its value has also fallen, from $11.5 billion to $7.9 billion.

Other technology brands in the top 10 are IBM at number 4 with a value of $66.6 billion, Apple is at number 6 and is valued at $63.1 billion. China Mobile is placed at number 7, with a value of $61.2 billion, and Vodafone, which is a new entrant in the top 10 list, is at number 9, with a value of $53.7 billion.

Mobile operators have seen brand value rise, for the most part. O2 and AT&T have especially benefited from the launch of the iPhone, both seeing double-digit rises in brand value. The top 10 mobile operators by brand value are:

Among the non-technology-based companies, General Electric (GE) has taken quite a beating, as the brand’s value has fallen from the number two position last year, to number 8 this year.

Ten of the companies in the top 25 list are from the technology sector. Further down the list is Amazon at number 26, AT&T at number 28, Cisco at number 30 and eBay at number 54.

Quite surprisingly, the value of some of the brands has gone up substantially this year, in spite of the effects of the worldwide recession, which only goes to show that good companies can do well even in tough times.

In the UK, brand value for some of the brands in the list has fallen. Marks & Spencers, in particular, has seen a 48% fall in brand value over the past year.

The 10 most valuable brands in the UK are as follows:

According to the terms of the agreement, Live Search will now be the default search engine for most of the new consumer and small business PCs that Dell ships globally. Considering the fact that Dell is the largest provider of PCs in the U.S. and the second largest OEM worldwide, a lot of new clients will now have the chance to use Live for their searches, without any trouble. All these new PCs will also have a Live Search-powered toolbar.

This agreement between Dell and Microsoft will be applicable across 23 countries worldwide ranging from Australia, Brazil, India, Japan, U.K. U.S.A. and many others and will come into effect from February 2009.

HP and Lenovo PCs shipped within North America already include Live Search as the default search engine.

The other interesting announcement made by Steve Ballmer is to the effect that Microsoft beat Google to acquire a five-year deal with Verizon, the second largest mobile carrier in the U.S.A. Thanks to this deal, users of Verizon Mobile in the U.S. will be able to use Live Search Mobile as their default search service.

Google is probably unhappier about the deal with Verizon, as mobile continues to be one of their top priorities for future growth and losing out to Microsoft in this relatively nascent market does not bode well.

However, no matter how many deals Microsoft can muscle in with providers and OEMs, it is the consumers who will finally decide, and far as consumers are concerned, Google is undoubtedly firmly entrenched in their hearts and minds.

With the competition among mobile service providers increasing, Verizon is certainly in need of a good search partner, and has been talking to other providers, including Microsoft.

Google, on the other hand, is equally keen to tie up with a carrier like Verizon, as the mobile search market is expected to grow by leaps and bounds in the near future. Such a deal could help Google improve the relevance of their ads by making them more location specific.

Shares of both Venison and Google went up after the Wall Street Journal reported that the two companies were close to a deal.

Yahoo! already has a similar deal with AT&T.

How long such deals would be beneficial, remains to be seen, as, once the markets open up, it will be possible for users to use the search engine of their choice irrespective of the make and model of their handset.

Traditionally the 700 MHz spectrum was used for television broadcasting. On 19 Feb 2009, the TV channels using this spectrum will be turned off and transmitted via set-top boxes, and usage of the spectrum will be handed over to Verizon. GigaOm provides a good explanation of the history of this part of the wireless spectrum

Increased coverage and better penetration through walls make the 700 MHz spectrum attractive for Verizon, who will use it to cut costs and achieve greater nationwide coverage in the United States. Verizon will now be able to reduce their roaming cost by having their own towers in rural areas, and they will also be able to provide DSL-like service to rural areas.

AT&T was another big spender, paying about $6 billion at the auction, in addition to their prior purchase of Aloha Partners’ 12MHz of spectrum, which covers 196 million people in the U.S.

Before the spectrum was auctioned Google convinced the FCC to set up openness standards for the winner of this block. Their lobbying efforts resulted in the FCC setting standards that allow users of the 700 MHz spectrum to attach any device and allow access to any applications that don’t harm the network.

The search giant’s interest in this auction was mainly to ensure open standards would be maintained, which will be very useful once their Android platform is in use.

Google had also shown a strong interest in the spectrum and had bid on it. They were possibly discouraged from heavier bidding due to investor concerns about their stock price and fears of Google moving away from search operations, which are the mainstay of the company.