gPhone rumors squashed...for now

This gPhone news picked up by Engadget...

This confirms my previous post. Software is the logical start for Google, and while a phone isn't out of the question for Google, the hardware business particularly mobile phones is an entirely different animal for the company. Yes, they do design their own data center servers, and their own GSA hardware, so they are not without experience in the space.




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iPhone and gPhone - together as one?

I am pretty sure that this is not the phone that Google is going to ship, however this 'rumored to be' insider snapshot of the 'gPhone' prototype is more about the software integration with the OS at this stage, and less about the hardware enclosing it.


Either way, the working name probably won't last long given the gPhone from GlobalPhone Corporation, and the gPhone from Gnome-o-Phone, the open source Skype-like software. However, Google would by far have the most interesting use for the gPhone moniker. In fact, when you consider the power of the g-Apps that come out of Google.com, it is quite compelling to see the potential, even with just the first few 1.0 mobile phone apps from Google: search, gmail, maps, and news. The Java Midlets for gmail and maps are particularly impressive for mere 1.0 applications. Satellite imagery straight to your Samsung Blackjack on the 3G network is the bomb.

But the killer 'app' per se is not going to be any one g-App, rather it will be the seamless integration of these applications to the phone that will make them compelling. Google almost doesn't need to market a phone at all, just the platform. However, if they do, it will only be to make the integration airtight. Windows Mobile 5 is just not there yet. Apple's iPhone? Not here yet, but coming. I think iPhone will be great, and the multi-touch interface will be killer. But will iLife be too much overhead, and thus overkill for mobile productivity? Will we really want iPhoto on our phones? Definitely a nice to have either way, but hardcore productivity remains to be seen. Yes, I'm sure to buy at least one iPhone in June, but I'd really like to see what Google can do here as well especially for true mobile productivity. Their notoriously lightweight, super-fast Web apps just work. And at 1.0, they work better than most of the 4th generation WM5 apps on the Blackjack.

Best of both worlds? How about a 'native' Google mobile suite for iPhone, to include all the apps from gmail to Jot. Yes, I know, Steve already mentioned that there would be some Google integration with iPhone at launch time. But how much integration is the question, especially in light of all this gPhone speculation. iPhone seems like a more straightforward entry point for Google, but in this business nothing is straightforward and anything is possible...should be an interesting summer.

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