Rumors about a Google phone have been flying for months. And since they started around the time that Apple was releasing its game-changing iPhone, it should come as no surprise that we all started to get the idea that Google might get into the hardware game and release a gPhone handset featuring Google software.But according to the New York Times, while Google has developed a few prototype handsets for internal testing, what the company is really working on is a mobile operating system. Or to put it another way, what the company is really working on is a way to serve up advertisements on your mobile device.
Google will offer up its OS to hardware manufacturers, so perhaps one day you'll be able to get a Treo running PalmOS, Windows Mobile, or a Google operating system. The OS will be Linux-based and will include Google applications including mail, directions, possibly a web browser, and probably some sort of mobile version of Google Docs & Spreadsheets.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-08-2007 @ 11:06AM
tony2x said...
Call me a cynic but I don't want advertising on my mobile phone. If Google comes up with a model where I don't pay for calls, data or text messages in exchange for some Ads then maybe that will be attractive to some.
Ad supported websites are fine, you can ignore the ads if you want but on my cellphone? Nah. Move along Google.
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10-08-2007 @ 1:53PM
james 42 said...
But Apple also makes a mobile OS, so how is it not competing against it?
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10-08-2007 @ 2:29PM
Seanross said...
{But Apple also makes a mobile OS, so how is it not competing against it?}
The same way the Treo's are not competing with the iPhone.... completely different markets and demos but inevitable comparisons. Google is looking to make a smart phone to compete with Windows Mobile is what im gathering
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10-08-2007 @ 4:27PM
xyz xyz said...
Why do anyone want to see advertisement on their mobile phone?
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10-08-2007 @ 4:32PM
Jason Barnes said...
So, will this new mobile OS be out of beta before Gmail is? I can already see Google competing with Microsoft on another level: The Blue Screen of Death vs. The Goo Screen of Death. :P
Jason Barnes
http://www.superbhosting.net
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10-08-2007 @ 7:08PM
Nate Wynd said...
"So, will this new mobile OS be out of beta before Gmail is? I can already see Google competing with Microsoft on another level: The Blue Screen of Death vs. The Goo Screen of Death. :P"
You have you remember that Google is being pretty loose with the term 'beta'. Gmail is fully functional as is just about everything in their free suite of web-based applications.
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10-08-2007 @ 7:08PM
james 42 said...
And how are Treos not competing with the iPhone? If a person is looking at getting a smart phone (like my wife) what's to stop them from looking at both and comparing? Nothing. And the people I are shopping around.
Saying they don't compete is like saying it would be reasonable to one person to have both, right? If they don't do the same things, there's no overlap. That's just silly.
It is really funny these days to watch how everyone is running around saying how they are not competing with this company or that product, when in fact they are.
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10-10-2007 @ 8:27AM
Seanross said...
They don't compete in the sense that they do NOT target the same market... I know people who have a Treo and an iPhone. I was considering one myself, but the loss in function over the Treo is not worth it. The iPhone (without "illegal" mods) cannot compete with all the functions of a Treo. The Treo can do everything the iPhone (sans multitouch screen,wifi, and the gyro sensors) and more. Go do your research. If your in the "corporate" business world and your looking for a phone for business use, there is NO comparison in the iPhone vs. Treo, Blackberry, or WM devices.
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12-10-2007 @ 12:57PM
James Abrahams said...
Lots of people are going on about Adverts. Google's operating system is part of a coalition of companies making the OS called Android. Which is based on linux and totally open source. So its not going to be a bit way just to get adverts! You'd be able to write your own distro without adverts if that were the case.
What we'll all be able to do with Android is amazing!
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