The Google Phone Cometh? [Gadgets]

Image via Wikipedia

For those of you who saw my hasty little tweet, this will be annoying and repetitive.

But I’m posting it anyway because it’s potentially exciting. Google is supposedly partnering with hardware gods HTC to bring their own in-house handset design to market with a fresh batch of Android OS.

Make the jump for details.

As they reported on their Mobile Blog yesterday, they recently handed out a large amount of testing units to employees, essentially initiating internal beta testing:

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. – Official Google Mobile Blog

The Engadget story linked at the end of this post rocks a photo of the GSM handset, rumored to sport an OLED screen and a trackball. The word seems to be an early 2010 release. There has been talk that a Google-branded handset would tightly integrate Google Voice, which has been restricted by carriers fearful that its features will outshine their own.

The carriers (AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile are the big players State-side) are right to fear, too. I use Google Voice as my primary voicemail client and to route calls to personal and work phones, as well as read voicemail transcriptions via email and have SMS conversations on the web. Since Google Voice is web-based, even when I’m out of Sprint coverage, I can get full SMS messages and notifications of missed calls and entire new voicemails over wifi.

For now, we’ll just have to wait and see. But I hope Google does this right. Hardware control is their new thing, with Chrome OS also expected to be limited to Google-approved hardware, including a requirement that all devices sold with it run only SSD, or solid-state, hard drives. They’re getting their feet wet in waters Apple has been ruling for a long time. Complete control from hardware design to OS is the ultimate mode of expression for any tech company, and Google can’t afford to screw that up.

Here’s to hoping for a kickass handset from them. And soon.

“Google Phone / Nexus One makes first Twitter appearance?” – Via Engadget

[Via http://therottenword.com]