Google Gphone. Which One?
The Google Gphone is coming. The Gphone is coming. But what exactly will it look like. TechCrunch opined a month ago that Gphone may really happen, and the Ammunition Group may be designing it. That goes against the more prevalent view that Google will be backing an open source mobile operating system that could finally break the carriers’ stranglehold on the mobile market. That stems from their involvement in the Open Handset Alliance and Android.
Now the New York Times seems assured that T-mobile will offer the first mobile phone with Google software. The phone will be made by HTC, one of the largest makers of mobile phones in the world, and is expected to go on sale in the United States before Christmas, perhaps as early as October.
Apparently Google is eager to get the Android platform on phones quickly because it thinks that the mobile Web is vital to the long-term growth of its digital advertising business. “We can make more money on mobile than we do on the desktop, eventually,” Eric E. Schmidt, Google’s chief executive, said in an interview on CNBC this week.
Daniel Langendorf feels that Google should have developed its own Gphone.
In his Gphone fantasy, Google forms its Mobile Dream Team and works closely with the world’s leading cell phone manufacturers. Maybe they come up with two form factors — one with a BlackBerry-like keyboard, one all-touch like the iPhone. They establish a consistent Gphone design language that can be executed between manufacturers.
That does not seem to be happening.
Going out on a limb, I have often wondered whether the Google Gphone will be a very cheaply available mobile phone that can help to reduce the digital divide. That would certainly be dear to the heart of Vinton G. Cerf, Vice President & Chief Internet Evangelist at Google. You would have to read between the lines of his most recent pronouncement for confirmation of that.
We’re nearing the tipping point for mobile computing to deliver timely, geographically and socially relevant information.
Closer to home, we’re at the cusp of a truly global internet that will bring people closer together and democratise access to information. We are all free to innovate on the net every day and we should look forward to more people around the world enjoying that freedom.
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BPWrap
August 22nd, 2008 at 8:07 am
I also have heard the news that the Gphone will be released anytime from now, and I very curious how it will looks like…
The Gphone motive is to compete with the iPhone, which it might be an interesting “new age phone war” indeed.
November 2nd, 2008 at 6:15 pm
Well, I think it was worth the wait, don’t you? The anticipation was exciting, and the product really delivers. Thanks to the Big G for giving the iPhone some healthy competition, finally.