Google Phone

Just days after we highlighted the parallels between Google’s incipient cellphone strategy and the niche carved out by Sidekick-sires Danger, the net is abuzz with semi-substantiated news that Google will not only be launching its own Google phone OS sometime around the Labor Day weekend, but also partnering with HTC to develop one model from its lineup as a flagship poster-device.

Engadget spills the juicy software details: according to their sources development of the gPhone OS (that’s not the official name, of course) started shortly after Google acquired Android, a mobile software company run by ex-Danger-cofounder Andy Rubin, in 2005. Based on Linux, the OS has apparently been whored around the hardware manufacturers and carriers to promote the idea of a flexible and customisable system with Google integration as one of its strong points.

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With increasing attention from both online and traditional media, the prospect of a Google Phone (or gPhone, or whatever the legal teams can agree on) is raising questions around to what extent the search company might be moving out of their software comfort zone and into hardware. Opinion is already split over how successful Google could be if left in charge of a section of the wireless spectrum, and with little in the way of a track record the naysayers in some quarters seem to be becoming more vocal in their doubts.

Reading a MEX analysis of Danger, however, I was struck by the similarity in the potential models between the company and Google. Danger, the developer behind the perennially popular Sidekick devices on the T-Mobile network, takes its revenue not from the distinctive handsets (which are constructed by Sharp and sold in the US, UK and Germany) but entirely from software and services - the device/server platform which makes the Sidekick unique.

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Russell Shaw of ZDNet points out that that Google is darn fast when it comes to securing trademark for products and services it releases. Can we expect Google to pull an Apple (see Apple vs. Cisco), since the gPhone trademark was filed by Micro-g LaCoste, Inc., a company in Lafayette, Colorado, on March 5 of this year.

The gPhone trademark that would represent:

An accelerometer employed as a gravity meter for use in full bandwidth monitoring of ground motion related to earthquakes, volcanology, tectonic movements, aquifers, hydrocarbon and groundwater reservoirs, glacial rebound, glacier studies, earth tides, long period seismicity, and for geologic mapping and other geoscientific applications.

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Before you read too much into this, be sure to get your recommended dose of salt ready. A newspaper out of India is reporting that Google will in fact be releasing a phone, and much sooner than anyone would have anticipated.

According to their unnamed source it will be only a fortnight before we hear an official launch from Google. Their source goes on to tell us that Google is currently in talks with two of the largest carriers in India for the phones release and that we can look forward to a simultaneous release in both the UK and the US. While I don’t see the phone coming out in a couple of weeks, I will admit that it would be great to see it released in the US and the UK at the same time. All too often do we see a product released in on place, while the other sits around patiently waiting for their turn. (see: iPhone)

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We’ve talked quite a lot here on Google-Phone about potential revenue schemes by which non-traditional carriers might monetise subscribers, and yesterday Google used YouTube - which they acquired last year - to trial what analysts are calling the first major sign that the search company intends targeted advertising to fund the gPhone. The adverts, which are contextually themed to each video and overlaid relatively discretely at the bottom of the frame, disappear after a few seconds if not clicked on, and so far occur only sporadically through viewing rather than affecting every clip.

The belief is that this, coupled with Google’s ongoing trials of ad-revenue supported mobile service, could potentially be the answer to the issue of how best to serve adverts neither too intrusive nor avoidable; analysts are saying that cellphone screens could display such advertising when users are dialling or surfing the net:

“It showcases the fact that you can do ads that are unobtrusive in at least one format with video. It very well could be that you could use a derivative of this to handle cellphones. It does look like Google is getting closer to bringing out that property” Rob Enderle, Technology Consultant

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For FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, Google’s threat to pull out of the 700MHz auction next January if their open-access demands were not met (is it me, or is it all sounding a tad James-Bond-villain?) must have been hanging like an unpleasantly scented cloud above the head; with a claimed $4.6bn investment to play with, that’s a big ball to take home if the game isn’t going to their favour.  And prior to the FCC ruling, Google’s people made it very clear what their stance was:

“If there is no openness requirement there, Google won’t go” Richard Whitt, Telecom & Media Counsel, Google Washington

With various sops in place (albeit not the full package the search giant demanded), the question remained of whether it was enough for Google to stay in the game, a question they refused to be drawn on.  However, Chief Executive Eric Schmidt has thrown a tempting tidbit back into the ring when asked by T-Mobile USA’s government relations chief Thomas Sugrue whether Google would take part in the auction:

“[Bidding] probably would be the way to answer that” Eric Schmidt, CEO Google

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There hasn’t been much news concerning Google’s upcoming device, known by its many names (gPhone, Goophone, Google Phone) but we have been here reporting every little breadcrumb we got. So feel free to go through the articles from the start till now, I am going to do a little recap for everyone who is new to the site.

There was the “Google phone is coming, believe it or not” article where there were two concepts of what a potential gPhone might look like and there was a lot of new news including more vendors that were reported to be in talks with Google.

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I suppose it only makes sense that Google’s ever-reaching hand has finally scooped up a new deal pertaining to the one part of entertainment they didn’t have their claws in, music. Universal is the primary company in this deal, they are starting a new DRM-Free music service called gBox.

What relevance does this have to the gPhone? Well if I had to guess, such a deal is only a hop and a skip, no jump, to this being the service included on any Goophone. The deal doesn’t really get Google’s hands dirty with the music industry, its really just a giant advertising deal, but its still a partnership, and you can tell simply by the service’s name that Google’s hand is in it.

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StarOffice, the basis for OpenOffice, has recently been added to Google’s Pack. For those of you that may not have heard of the service, Google offers up a service that is extremely useful for system builders and new PC owners alike, its called “Google Pack”.

This service allows you to customize a single downloadable file that includes several programs that one would normally download separately. The Google branded services in Pack are Google Earth, Google Desktop, Google Talk, Picasa, Google Photos Screensaver, and Google Toolbar for IE. There is also Firefox (with, you guessed it, Google Toolbar), Norton Security Scan, Spyware Doctor, RealPlayer, Adobe Reader, Skype, and now StarOffice w/ Java.

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The latest concept comes from dial-a-phone and essentially looks like an all white version of the iPhone. I like the appearance of the design, but Google doesn’t seem likely to release a device that’s already been done.

Other than the concept from the blog, the writer had some other interesting things to say, such as the likely US carrier being T-Mobile and them partnering with Orange in foreign markets. Orange might get the foreign market contract, so might several other companies, but to be honest, and selfish, I don’t care who gets the foreign market service contract, I am only worried about me (US).

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