Recently there was news that Microsoft will stick with charging handset makers licensing fees for Windows Mobile. What a strange notion, I thought, especially in light of the totally open source, and totally free, operating system—Android—that will ship with the G1. Here’s what Steve Ballmer said about it:

‘It’s interesting to ask why would Google or Nokia, Google in particular, why would they invest a lot of money and try to do a really good job if they make no money. I think most operators and telecom companies are skeptical about Google,’ he said.

I think Ballmer is casting doubt on Google’s business model here — and is trying to make telecoms, operators, and us scared — because Google scares the hell out of him. In Microsoft-land customers pay for Microsoft software that’s installed on approved hardware. Full stop. That’s the model that made Microsoft richer than God.

But those days are coming to an end, and Ballmer knows it. But, like a lumbering oil tanker that’s headed for a rocky shoal, Microsoft doesn’t appear to be able to right itself before it runs aground.

That’s where the G1 comes in. It’s one of the first lighthouses along the shore that shows us where Google is taking the mobile platform — the same place they took the desktop: Into the cloud. Cloud computing is akin to off-shoring or outsourcing the role and resources of the traditional desktop computer. All that stuff is moved to some data center in a far off place that replaces your computer’s hard drive. Even some processing tasks are moved out of the pretty box on your desk, and onto the server.

Of course, cloud computing requires lots of bandwidth, which is increasingly available. Fast mobile data networks are just now coming into their own in North America, too. Meanwhile, Web browsers and Web technologies are just now maturing to handle the complexities of cloud computing.

We’re in the middle of a slow, but very significant shift away from the “desktop model” and towards a more mobile, more flexible way of getting, using, and sharing our stuff. The G1 will take the products that depend on cloud computing we’ve been using on our computers and make it easier to put all that stuff in our pockets.

Now, before you say this is all just a rah-rah for cloud computing and Google, it’s worth noting that Google quite obviously isn’t the only player. A great app that I’ve just started using is DropBox, which allows you to share files (with version control) with remote users. There are countless other examples, many of which take advantage of Amazon’s S3 service. And of course, all the old concerns about security and privacy hang in the background of this whole conversation. And it’s true that Google does intend to make money, as Ballmer warns, by selling ads in the white space around their services — a possible detractor from the user experience.

UPDATE: People seem to be psyched about the promise of the G1. T-Mobile is pre-selling them like mad.