Google Attack On the Mobile Market Rumored

xchg writes in with a somewhat speculative, though plausible, piece from WiseAndroid claiming that Google is gearing up for an all-out assault on the mobile-phone market that will include a new, Google-branded handset and the first comprehensive Google phone service with unlimited free calls. "The real breakthrough, however, will come with the marriage of the Googlephone to Google Voice, the Californian company’s high-tech phone service. Google Voice gives US users a free phone number and allows unlimited free calls to any phone in the country — landline or mobile. International calls start from... just over a penny a minute. Google Voice also uses sophisticated voice recognition to turn voicemails into emails, can block telemarketing calls automatically and offers free text messaging. Google sounded its intentions two weeks ago when it purchased a small company called Gizmo5... [E]xperts are predicting that the Googlephone will be launched in the US early next year."

Comments

Re:Creative destruction

[nurb432]

It also concerns me, in the long term. What is google doing to finance all this ( and their other potential market takeovers )? What is their end goal if they own everything? Why should i trust them anymore then any other company?

Remember, power corrupts.. At what point does it corrupt Google and we ALL get to pay the price?

They haven't got the Droid quite right yet...

[bschorr]

Maybe they should focus on fixing the devices they already have on the market rather than bringing out whole new things?

The Android is an interesting device but Exchange-Calendar sync is broken (even my iPod Touch does it better), the camera is mediocre and a lot of features just feel like they're .9 level rather than ready for prime time.

Re:Conspiracy Theory

[tomhudson]

I can't wait for Google to record all of our conversations, run them through a voice to text converter and then email/SMS/call me with "targeted" advertisements.

I see the Googlebots modded you -1 Troll. Why? Because it's very believable. And it's probably what they'd end up doing. So there'd be all these nice transcripts lying around ... that could be VERY profitable.

Re:Creative destruction

[PopeRatzo]

Paying off your credit card will not lower your score.

If you pay off your credit card and then cancel it, the company will report it as negative credit information on your credit history. It will lower your score.

The only way to avoid negative impact is to keep the card account open, even if you don't use it, which means you'll pay fees for no service.

Doesn't that sound like a racket? If you want to close your paid off account, they will lower your score.