Google phone coming in two weeks?

Talk of a possible Google phone kicked up again Friday with new rumors coming out of India that the phone could be launched within two weeks.

Rediff.com reported that Google is in talks with two of the three top mobile providers in India, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Essar, to offer the new "Gphone." The article cites unnamed sources who say the phone will also be launched simultaneously in the U.S. and Europe. The only remaining hurdle in the U.S., the story said, is approval from the Federal Communications Commission, which must certify any wireless device sold in the U.S.

Google isn't commenting on the rumors, saying in a statement that the company "is committed to providing users with access to the world's information, and mobile becomes more important to those efforts every day."

Before you get too excited and start queuing up somewhere for one of these phones, let me explain why I think the rumors are bogus. For one, Google has never actually confirmed that it's working on building its own handset. Even though it sounds really cool and sexy for the company to pull an "Apple" by building its own hardware, it just doesn't fit into Google's business model, which is to develop software applications for the Web as a way to sell more advertising.

Google executives, including Chris Sacca, head of special initiatives at Google, have said publicly that they think there is plenty of competition and innovation in the handset market.

"I think there is a healthy environment of competition and innovation in the device market worldwide," Sacca said in an interview with CNET News.com last month. "It's just the channel that discourages that kind of innovation here in the U.S."

And just this week, Marissa Mayer, Google's vice president of search products and user experience, showed off how well Google's applications worked on her iPhone. So I just don't see any reason why Google would want to build an "iPhone-killer."

That said, there's no question Google is hot for mobile. The company has introduced several new mobile products this year. And CEO Eric Schmidt recently said the company will likely participate in the upcoming 700MHz spectrum auction early in 2008. Exactly what it will do with the spectrum if its wins licenses is unknown.

I think what's more likely is that Google is working with a hardware partner to develop a smart phone that's optimized and preloaded with lots of Google applications. My guess is that the supposed prototypes that The Wall Street Journal and others have mentioned in recent articles may be mockups the company has developed with partners to demonstrate and test new applications.

So could a Google-powered device made by unknown hardware partners really be ready for launch in two weeks? I think that's probably a little too soon. I checked the FCC Web site Friday and Google has not registered any product to be tested with the FCC. Of course, if Google is working with a partner, as I have suggested above, the phone could be registered in the FCC files under a different company's name.

My gut feeling is that these Google-loaded phones will likely be introduced a little later this year and into early next year. But stay tuned. I'll definitely be watching to see how Google's ongoing mobile strategy evolves.

[wylbur]

What I don't understand

Is if Google believes mobile is so important, why don't they
improve and expand the Google Maps application for Windows
Mobile phones. Yahoo!Go is so far ahead of where Google is on this
stuff, and I don't think it would be hard for them to do.

[eldernorm]

I agree

I totally agree. I think it would make much more sense for Google to be sure that the iPhone is going to be the big hit, then make great crazy apps for it, integrated fully with Apple.

JMHO. :-)

en

[awilensky]

Google testing phones in San Mateo

There was a NA Wireless team testing some very slick handsets and tower parameters in San Mateo; I asked them who was the carrier - they said this was a limited license test of WIMAX voice data broadband for Google - then he said, "now I have to kill you".

The test phones looked like small, square, no keyboard touch screen mini devices. Very futuristic.

[cru3se]

google and sprint-clearwire

The deal that bGoogle signed with sprint-clearwire has the new phone network using wi-max precludes the use of a google phone when the network is already being setup.

[mlissne]

Interesting

In the last iphone commercial I saw, Steve looks up stock quotes. What quote does he pull up? GOOG. Google's ticker symbol. Other quotes on the screen I remembered were SBUX, ADBE, and HD.

[Mapper99]

Google Phone...

This sounds like the same story told weeks before the iPhone release. Can't wait to see what Google dreams up.

http://gphone.corank.com

[iBuzz]

No Google spyware on my phone please

It's bad enough Google caches and indexes everything I do on the web when using a PC. Next they'll be keeping track of who I call, and through GPS in a phone, where I am at all times!

Why would anyone trust Google on their phone?

Just say no to Big Brother Google.

[geo11101]

Eric Schmidt is the biggest Mafia puppet in the US. He is bad news for apple users. http://endmafia.com