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Google Phone Rumors Solidifying

Posted by kdawson on from the and-a-pony dept.

MrCrassic alerts us to an Ars Technica roundup of various reports about Google's rumored gPhone, from CrunchGear, Engadget, and others. Business Week attempts to read into the silence of software developers (who are all, presumably, under NDA) to triangulate Google's plans. Both outlets agree that Google is probably developing its own Linux-based OS for the gPhone, and that it will be open to outside developers.

11 of 90 comments (clear)

  1. hey, great... by cosmocain · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ...not only all my private email is stored, my office documents analyzed, my photos categorized, now i can have all my sms and phone calls archived. let me celebrate this with a little dance of celebration: tippididibclapdip.

  2. Competition for the iPhone? by Klaidas · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I guess the gPhone will probably use 3G, be available worldwide and open for developers... Quite a competition for the iPhone, if you ask me. Maybe apple will then listen more to what customers want on their iPhones?

    1. Re:Competition for the iPhone? by mangu · · Score: 4, Insightful
      How about this phone? It has everything a developer could want, right? Or how about this one? Or all of these?


      I think being open for development isn't enough, you also need to spend a couple $100 million or so in marketing...

    2. Re:Competition for the iPhone? by Klaidas · · Score: 3, Insightful

      True, but google has already spent waaaay more in marketing, so they can safely skip this step.
      Just like apple - most phones were bought just because they have their logo (I'm not saying that the phone itself is not cool - I'd like to get one myself!, but if it was some unknown company the phone probably wouldn't be as popular as it is.)
      Besides, google is even better known than apple is. For example, ask a first grade student what's google, and they'll know. Ask about apple, and they'll probably tell you that it's a fruit and nothing more :)

    3. Re:Competition for the iPhone? by WhatAmIDoingHere · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yeah, because the unwashed masses LOVE linux. And know what it is.

      The fun number of "people who want to run 3rd party apps on their iPhones" is 2%. Two percent. Most people don't care. They couldn't run 3rd party apps on their old phones and they can't do it yet with their iPhone.

      --
      Not a Twitter sockpuppet... but I wish I was.
    4. Re:Competition for the iPhone? by sc0ob5 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It's all well and good to list off a few phones but the fact is that I have tried to get a few of those phones (at least some in the linux devices list) and I have to say they aren't easy to come by here in Australia and I didn't get replies from a few vendors, one would have thought they'd actually be happy to sell their hardware. Many of the phones will not work on our networks, and the ones that do are in chinese or korean or japanese. Also none of those phones are 3G capable and none have HSDPA. Not exactly cutting edge. When I spend ridiculous amounts of money on a phone I want it to at least be upto date with all the other phones out there that use closed source OSes. Perhaps google can do all of these things, 3G network capable, HSDPA, english, open, available. I'm not really big on the whole advertising thing though, I'd gladly pay for a phone with all of the above without the advertising.

    5. Re:Competition for the iPhone? by Echnin · · Score: 4, Insightful
      About that number though - from the way it's phrased it seems to refer to 2% of iPhone owners; maybe people who wanted to run 3rd party apps didn't buy iPhones? I really, really wanted to buy an iPhone for the form factor, multi-touch, and other goodies, but I really, really need to run a certain app, which, the developers say, *would* have been ported to the iPhone if Apple would have allowed it. In the end, I bought a Windows Mobile phone (HTC Blue Angel) and I hate it in every possible way (the crashing, the slowness, rough UI) except for the fact that it allows me to use this program, which saves my life every single day.

      Apparently, Apple didn't make the iPhone for people like me, but damn I wish they did. Oh, and it would be nice if I could get it some other way than buying it cracked from a shady dealer in Zhongguancun for 6000 yuan. Buying a phone that won't let me substitute the SIM card for a local one when travelling is not an option anyway... In the end, it's Apple's decision what product they want to release, and since they apparently make heaps of money this way through their profit-sharing deal with AT&T, more power to them. Still, though, I wish someone would make a phone for me.

      --
      Lalala
  3. Come on guys, stop and think by Nomen+Publicus · · Score: 5, Insightful
    What does Google do? Web apps. What single hardware component would Google want everybody to have?

    A simple, cheap, thin web client that works anywhere where you can get a wireless signal.

    Any voice app would just be a bolt-on goody to the basic device (thanks to skype?)

    Google is in the business of delivering data, they really don't want to share any profit with a middleman such as the phone company. Apple had to do a deal with the devil, but Google as enough money to deal direct with the lost souls.

  4. consumer-level? by m2943 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The iPhone occupies a mobile market that is far separate from what Google will be targeting with its series of lower-end, consumer-level devices

    This statement suggests that the iPhone is somehow not a consumer-level device. In fact, both the Google phone and the iPhone look like they are going to be "consumer-level devices". The iPhone is "high end" in terms of its price. In terms of features, if the Google phone provides Google's applications (mail, docs, YouTube, maps, reader, talk, maybe more) and MP3 player functionality, the Google phone would actually be "higher end" as far as I'm concerned. The iPhone becomes even more expensive and complicated if you consider that the Google phone can just operate over the air, while the iPhone uses desktop syncing.

    I think this could be a serious problem for Apple because the one thing Apple traditionally has going for them over other companies is that other companies make their products too complex. But Google keeps things simple and cheap. Furthermore, on-line services without desktops is clearly where the industry is going: Nokia is coming up with OTA tie-ins, and Microsoft and Yahoo are also busy exposing their web sites through phone software and phone integration.

    1. Re:consumer-level? by GPL+Apostate · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It will be amusing on a certain level if Google, which has been termed a potential 'Microsoft killer,' instead kills Apple.

      --
      Microsoft says legacy (serial/parallel) ports are bad. They don't obfuscate the hardware enough.
  5. GPhone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    The New York Times published an article about the possibilities of Google entering the wireless phone market. The angle they chose to take was about Google's GPhone and Apple's IPhone. While there may be enough speculation to warrant several paragraphs of news, I think the NYT completely missed the target.

    I believe Google has very little interest in Apple's IPhone, other than partnering with them to insure Google's applications run on the device. I think Google's eyes are on a much bigger picture, affording them another huge source for advertising revenue. My theory is based on several things Google has been taking an interest in. The first one, other than the GPhone itself, is Google's interest in the 700MHz band being auctioned off by the FCC. With this in mind, I have very little doubt the GPhone will work in this area of the spectrum.

    There are some other things Google has been doing help to bring this all home. For example, have you tried Goog411? If not, visit Http://www.google.com/goog411/. Why would Google be so interested in a telephone 411 application? Well, if you have a mobile phone which can receive Google Maps, Google Information, and (of course) Google Advertisements, then you have a potentially profitable revenue stream.

    Taking this to the next level, Google has always had a very strong interest in providing free WiFi to metropolitan areas. While this has proven to be less-than practical to implement, I think Google still would like to see some form of wireless communications which is free to access by the masses. Don't forget, Google is sitting on a very large network of unused fiber optics. If Google wins the 700MHz spectrum, establishes access points linked by their fiber network, and provides mobile communications with the GPhone, Google will be in a position to collect HUGE truck-loads of money from advertisers.

    Scenario :
    You use GPhone and Goog411 to call a hardware store. Google sends you a map (to your GPhone via Google Maps). On the map, other advertisers have their stores listed along the route AND Google is sending you additional advertisements related to hardware. Over time, the GPhone will have accumulated certain trends, based on the calls you make, and custom advertisements are sent to your phone - maybe even GPhone-Only coupons to be used at participating retailers.

    http://williamfink.blogspot.com/