Is this the G-Phone?
There is strong news around the tech blogs that a HTC-made, Google Phone is in the wild amongst Google employees. Google did confirm that there is something brewing. This is very important because currently Google just develops the Android OS, while it is up to manufactures (like HTC, Motorola, etc.) to make the hardware. With the so-called Google Phone (or G-Phone) it would mean a phone fully developed by Google to their liking. You can expect tight integration between the hardware and software. For manufactures who implement the Android OS it could be uneasy news.
Here are the facts from TechCrunch: The hardware manufacturer of the “Google Phone” is HTC, and it will be sold as an unlocked GSM phone (so technically it would work on both T-Mobile and AT&T). The phone will be running Android 2.1. It will be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and it will have a beautifully bright-lit OLED touchscreen. It has no physical keyboard, two mics (one mic will try to eliminate background noise), and a camera. Rumors are that it is thinner than the current iPhone. A projected release date of January 2010 has been mentioned.
For cell phone manufactures who are Android partners, this could take away from their sales. If the reports are true, the G-Phone definitely makes Apple’s iPhone 3GS look silly and dated. Where the Droid was equal to the iPhone, the G-Phone should eclipse both. Nokia and Symbian need to innovate now in order to keep their market share lead. For Palm and Microsoft, this marks the beginning of irrelevancy in the smartphone market. Lastly, Verizon gets left out on what potentially could be the best phone on the market.
The real winner? Google. It is the correct move for the company. It ensures extremely tight integration of software and hardware that rivals the iPhone. They can create their own branded phone and no one will stop them because they have the manufacturers by the balls with their amazing Android OS. This is something Microsoft never dared to do in the PC market…but then again this is what separates Google from the rest.
No comments:
Post a Comment