“We told you the Google phone was confirmed. And now some Googler’s seem to be confirming it, too,” Michael Arrington reports for TechCrunch. “There is a lot of chatter on Twitter about Google employees with HTC-built unlocked Google Phones running Android 2.1. And the devices look to be coming out in January.”
Arrington reports, “It looks to us like Google may have handed out a lot of the new Google Phone devices today to employees, and naturally they’re showing it to friends.”
Full article here.
John Biggs writes for CrunchGear, “What if Google starts to sell this thing? This is “a big deal” on the level of Neo learning Kung Fu in The Matrix. This means Google is making hardware.”
Biggs writes, “For nigh on three decades computer manufacturers have been secure in their positions of power… But suddenly service providers are doing hardware. Amazon has the Kindle, Barnes&Noble has a lumpen Nook, and now Google has a phone. What’s next? The Credit Suisse Fondue Set?”
Biggs writes, ” When Dell launches a phone, it’s news. When Google launches a phone it’s a Moon Shot.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Puleeze. Potential users of fake iPhones rejoice (maybe), but enough with the massively overblown hype already. “Moon Shot,” our asses. All we ask is for at least a little bit of perspective.
[UPDATE: 5:45pm ET: Mario Queiroz, Vice President, Product Management, Google, explains via The Official Google Blog:
At Google, we are constantly experimenting with new products and technologies, and often ask employees to test these products for quick feedback and suggestions for improvements in a process we call dogfooding (from “eating your own dogfood”). Well this holiday season, we are taking dogfooding to a new level.
We recently came up with the concept of a mobile lab, which is a device that combines innovative hardware from a partner with software that runs on Android to experiment with new mobile features and capabilities, and we shared this device with Google employees across the globe. This means they get to test out a new technology and help improve it.
Unfortunately, because dogfooding is a process exclusively for Google employees, we cannot share specific product details. We hope to share more after our dogfood diet.]
MacDailyNews Take: That doesn’t sound like an imminent Google Phone to us.
Dell launched a phone? Really? Was it with a punkin-chunker?
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in a nod to what others have said, I can see the HTC logo. So the Search Company is NOT designing hardware. It’s not a Google phone. Its an Android phone.
In other words, this aint Google’s “Zune” its just a nice looking device.
The idear of a gPhone makes me sick I tell ya, jest SICK.
In other words…
I laughed so hard it gave me heart burn, I have a headache, and I think I broke a rib.
It would be a cold day in Hell, when you’d see Apple hand out lots of unreleased prototype phones to employees to run around with.
Just what experience does Google have designing hardware? Zero. (That’s assuming they designed this and had HTC build it, which is a huge assumption.) So why would anyone get the slightest bit wet that Google’s designing a phone?
Apple’s products get hype for a reason: the company has a long line of monster successful hardware designs. That’s why just the idea of an Apple tablet generates hype and everyone else’s generates yawns.
I don’t get the appeal of a Google phone. What would Google bring to the table that no other Android phone has? It’s running the same buggy OS as all the others and would have the same features. Any “competitors” would soon have any new features via software updates and unless Google really wants to screw its partners by reserving some features for itself, there’s nothing to differentiate it.
It’s pointless.
I feed dog food to my dog. His name is Obama. He is a dog.
Hardware is hard. LOL@”moon shot”.
People said Apple wasn’t going to just waltz into the phone market. But Apple was a company built on intuitive, easy-to-use consumer electronics successes. Google has Android, Picasa and Wave.
Good luck in your quest for “gorilla” handset status.
x is obviously the perfect candidate for the Gphone or the Dell toilet.
Moron.
google seems to have become a “look at us too!” company, all they seem to be doing is copying apple. Never should have had them on the board of directors in the first place, same mistake steve made letting bill take a mac to redmond for a week, all google has done is learn inside secrets and now they just try and copy apple–really kinda sad
@HughB the undercover analyst:
Yeah let’s start a new AAPL bashing round. Nobody will notice.
@84 Mac Guy
I have an HTC Droid Eris. I can tell you that Verizon has forced no customization onto the phone other than a Verizon Wireless splash screen that appears for 3 seconds when you power it on…
The carriers have all learned from Verizon’s huge mistake in initially turning down Apple…
I can tell you that Android has gotten better & better. If you notice, Google is now offering Google services either to Android first or Android only… this will be a problem for iPhone…
I had the 1st Gen iPhone. I couldn’t stand the incompetent AT&T;service anymore, so I got rid of it (it’s now the world’s most expensive iPod Touch! LOL!)
I can tell you that this phone is close, very close… in some ways better than the iPhone, in some ways worse…
It’s got some really nice little features I can’t believe are missing from the iPhone… Little things like the weather on my home screen updating based on my GPS location.. nice touch… where’s Apple?
In my Visual Voicemail, I can e-mail a voicemail message right out of my inbox…. nice feature, again where’s Apple?
Sense UI (HTC’s Multitouch) has a calibration tool for the virtual keyboard, so it learns how I type… I make far fewer typos on the HTC than I did on my iPhone… very practical, once again where’s Apple?
I get OS updates over-the-air rather than having to go through iTunes… it downloads it during the night, I get a notification that the updates are downloaded & ready to be installed & I can choose to install them or not…. REALLY convenient…. Where’s Apple??? I hated having to connect to iTunes and it only downloading the update, etc after I chose OK. How archaic!
I can turn any music file on my phone into a ringtone. No additional payments to anybody. Nice money-saving feature…. where’s Apple?
I have set up iCal & Apple address book to update Google calendars and contacts… It pushes all updates out to my Droid almost immediately… the service is FREE. I had to pay for MobileMe for this service w/ Apple, and the push updates were not nearly as immediate…
I can tell you that the music player & video player are not integrated and absolutely suck. Apple’s genius really shows here…
There is no management software ala iTunes. No automatic backups, etc. This really sux. I’m sure Google is working on an online version of some sort of management software…
As several have said before, this is not hardware made by Google, merely re-branded to their name. Also, not something obviously meant to be sold to the public. To quote: “John Biggs writes for CrunchGear, “What if Google starts to sell this thing?” “ … yeah, What If. For right now, it is a semi-large order placed by Google with one of its partners for a product many of its employees need. A specific, controlled, test bed.
The iPhone is not perfect. Especially if you consider the network it’s on. The Android phones are equally imperfect. Different reasons.
For this to be “real”, you’d need a bit more Google input into the design – the actual hardware part – as well as some unique tweeks to the software – more than a unique flash screen. Re-badging is nothing to chatter about.
The iPhone, The iPod touch, the Mac and soon the tablet will soon be very integrally and seamlessly intertwined and integrated.
One will be a natural extension of the other and they will all share a common OS, software, apps and files in a manner that only a company like Apple can implement and make seem effortless and transparent. That’s because Apple knows how make software that is simple to the user, rock solid and it creates the ultimate trouble free user experience featuring unrivaled ease of use.
No other company can compete. That is an undisputed fact that is evidenced by Apple’s growing market share during the last few years while the entire industry has been shrinking ( ask Michael Dell). Anyone who purchases any Apple product, fast becomes addicted and follows soon with a Mac or another. The learning curve is negligible and it’s instant familiarity, productivity, functionality and customer satisfaction. Freedom.
Google is a great company, with an unrivaled following and edge in information management…That’s the ship they need to keep afloat and perpetually develop. They can’t compete directly with Apple and it’s OS’ evolution. Not in a million years…
HTC designed phones are not good so the Google phone, if it is marketed, is really the same thing.
When I think of Google lately, they seems like non-innovaters.
Too bad, they had potential. Hopefully they will go back to making a great search engine and forget the rest of their stupid side projects.
Hey Google! Great job on Chrome for Mac! Ha! And even better job on the Linux version!
I actually heard a Zune HD ad on FM radio last night. It features BB as the place to get one. Very sophmoric ad style. They will never learn. But then again, perhaps the demographic fits.
What I want to happen is that Google phones can have any SIM card installed with them. And that they can connect to my internet connection at home without having to pay for a expensive data plan I cannot afford.
Then that will make Apple release the iphone away from at@t’s grip.
Good luck with that..
So it’s just going to be as good as “dog food”? Sorry, Dr Eric Schmidt, that sounds rather sad.
http://no-spamming/
I love google. I get as excited when Google launches something new as I get when Apple launches. I hope both companies combined will destroy Microsoft.
@gregg
MSFT will forego all of its partners and do the same thing.
Only after they’ve abandoned Microsoft and their OS. I believe at some point, Microsoft will enter the PC market as a last ditch effort to bolster their commitment to the platform. I’m expecting a tablet or a laptop that will compliment their cloud initiative.
This may not occur though until they’ve had plenty of time to examine mobile computing done right. In other words, they’ll copy Apple and compete with similar products.
Apple does most of their R&D;, after all.
what the hell is “visual voicemail”?
@Kitch
You wrote, “Apple doesn’t actually manufacture the iphone yet we still call it the apple iPhone and not the foxcon ( or whoever makes it) phone with iPhone os”
The difference is that Apple DESIGNED every detail of the iPhone (perhaps with the exception of some standardized telecom chips) and contracted with a Chinese firm (Foxcon?) to build the phone to their exact specifications.
In this case, Google is testing their software on what appears to be a standard HTC phone that Google had no role in designing.
New Product
GhoneAds launch announced by goog!
A phone supported totally by advertisements (just like a newspaper)!
In honor of the trend of blended naming schema, the “g” from google has been blended with “hone” from the word “phone” an the word “Ad” in honor of the time tested advertisement supported news industry!
Let us offer a hearty welcome to
drum roll please
GhoneAds!
A phone supported totally by advertisements (just like a newspaper)!
In honor of the trend of blended naming schema, the “g” from google has been blended with “hone” from the word “phone” an the word “Ad” in honor of the time tested advertisement supported news industry!
Let us offer a hearty welcome to
drum roll please
GhoneAds!
In response to questions, a company spokesperson conformed (?sp) that gOOn and gOOne had both been rejected as alternate names because market testing had shown the pronunciation hoped for by Schmidt, Page, and Brin had to be explained to every one of the participants of the studies with the phrase “sounds like cone” and it was concluded the cost to change the pronunciation throughout the English speaking world via advertising would be prohibitive.