The media generated a lot of buzz over the past few months speculating on Google’s plans for a gPhone. With so many tantalizing clues, who could blame them? The announcement of the search giant’s actual plans landed with a thud rather than a splash – but in the end could be more significant even than Apple’s iPhone.
So what kinds of hints have there been? Well, Google has been showing a prototype phone to telecom carriers, and was reportedly in heavy negotiations with a number of carriers (and may still be negotiating with Verizon at the time of writing). Google CEO Eric Schmidt admitted that his company “has a large investment in mobile phones and mobile phone applications” in an interview. And going back to 2005, Google bought Android; Andy Rubin, one of Android’s co-founders, was also a founder of the company that created the wildly popular T-Mobile Sidekick smart phone. Well, at least everyone figured out that something related to cell phones was afoot at Google, and with the recent release of Apple’s iPhone, it’s not too surprising that a number of observers thought another headset was in the offing.
I admit that I’m every bit as guilty of climbing on board the hype wagon as any other writer or analyst. You can check out my original article on Google’s gPhone which was published in early August. Back then I pointed out that Google would be crazy to build a headset, because that kind of hardware is not and never has been Google’s specialty.
I mentioned the idea of the gPhone again, in passing, in a later article about a Google patent on payment via text messaging. Never mind that other payment systems that use this method already have a slew of active clients. In truth, this payment system came closer to pointing to Google’s actual direction in the cell phone space than the rumors of Google creating a prototype gPhone, finding a manufacturer, and maybe even buying spectrum to become a cell phone company in its own right (though the search engine truly is mulling the idea of purchasing some spectrum in the FCC’s upcoming auction). What Google hopes to bring into existence isn’t a new cell phone, but the environment that would make a new cell phone amazingly useful.
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