Google Phone

Well according to Business Week they have had two independent sources contact them saying that is the case. I love the idea of anyone except the traditional telcos getting their hands on this spectrum. Much like Google, I highly doubt Apple would stay with the traditional business model for companies that own spectrum.

In fact I would be willing to wager that even Google would be happy with Apple getting the spectrum, as long as it wasn’t another wireless service provider to come along and lock down the spectrum and restrict its use. This biggest, and this is a big one, difference between Google and Apple, is that Apple already has lots of experience with the mobile market as they have already gone through the whole handset design, release, and upkeep process which means they are already familiar with that end of things whereas Google’s only experience in the mobile market is with its apps that are constantly being added to handsets.
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Adding grist to the Google Phone mill comes The Boston Globe, with sneaky news from people who’ve touched - that’s right, kids, touched - Google’s cellphone prototype.  While NDAs have, as ever, scythed out the fun stuff, Om Malik has been digging around and found the following:

• Google currently has between three and five prototypes, mostly reworked HTC handsets (as reported here) with full QWERTY keyboards, and rumours continue that Google has been co-partnering with HTC and carrier Orange in developing the design.  The handset the NDA folks have seen is similar,. apparently, to the T-Mobile Dash
• The underlying core of the gPhone is Linux (no surprise there), and it’s capable of running one or more Java Virtual Machines
• Each application on the cellphone is an individual Java app; the OS is also capable of natively running multimedia clips including video files
• Users shouldn’t expect an outlandish or ground-breaking interface, as the UI is very similar to that in existing cellphones (and the red Google Switch concept is definitely not what should be expected).  The interface as a whole is coded in Java, very responsive and has a prominent ‘Search’ box.
• The web browser has been specially written in Java for the handset and is similar in concept to that running on the iPhone and on Symbian phones, in that it relies on panning, scrolling and zooming.

[via BGR]