Google phone expected soon

The initial big event will be early next year and the 'phone' is being targeted to intercept the next iteration of Android which is to be called Flan (all the Android versions are baking-related in alphabetical order - cupcake, donut, eclair... ). That fact alone probably indicates that Google and the manufacturer concerned will be showing early versions and doing some explaining and appetite-whetting in advance of the big launch several months later.

This two or three stage approach is practically mandatory in a world where publicity and spin have become THE most important part of the gadget launch - why not get several bites at the free advertising cherry in the run-up to the big day?

And Google has form here. Its 'show, tell, then sell later' approach has been deployed expertly with Chrome OS and Wave, so little reason to think it won't be the same with the new phone, especially as, in the US at least, gadget launches now distinctly resemble movie releases with much emphasis on first weekend sales numbers - the launch has to be big and over-subscribed, preferably with lines round the block.

However the details of the phone itself and the Google strategy are a bit of a blur. The rumours say it will be distinctly up-market with a large touchscreen display and a powerful Qualcomm processor (could be Qualcomm's Snapdragon). In fact it might be more of a tablet than a phone. Games could be important.

It's also being suggested that Google is preparing to bypass the carriers and go straight to retail stores with the Google Phone, although this would make the price of the handset higher.

It could (just could) be a non-carrier handset, set up to use VoIP and with an option to support WiMAX  (Google is an investor in WiMAX play, Clearwire). Consider this: one thing the Google phone is very likely to include is Google Voice built in and supported in much the way that the core Google apps (mail, maps, contacts) are supported on Android today. And Google Voice will likely - sooner or later - have a VoIP component enabling free calls to be made - at least across WiFi connections to start with and across mobile broadband when and where allowed.

If the plan is to face down the US mobile carriers over mobile net neutrality by launching what might become a wildly popular product, then now (or the next few months) is the time to do it - just as the FCC is is getting down to its neutrality consultations.

Could Google be planning to launch the gadget direct to the public to dare the big carriers not to support it with an appropriate data-only price plan (say) or other obstructive behaviour? Could be.

But as to it being a 'Google phone' - as in 'made and sold by Google' - I'm not so sure. I think it's more likely that what's been spotted by someone is the first in a line of new phones (and probably manufactured by HTC) supporting Flan with Google Voice baked in. That's why it's being called a Google Phone.

 

It is just possible that Google wants an up-market phone to set against the iPhone with its own brand on it, but on reflection I think that's less likely.

Google, we have to remember, has no interest in being a handset manufacturer (as it keeps saying). It is interested in developments which keep the downstream players 'open' and which help migrate data and applications onto the Internet where Google's advertising and cloud computing ambitions can get at them.

Google Voice is just such a play. It develops voice as a user-controlled service available from the cloud via browser or widget and it will make the already sticky Google apps environment even stickier. The best way to develop that strand of the business is to bake Google Voice into an end device powered by Android and hope and expect that if the gadget becomes popular, other vendors will follow suit and bake Google Voice into their handsets as well.

For that reason the gadget being readied for launch in a few months' time is unlikely to be a specific Google phone, but the first example of a category of device in the Android family that all the vendors can develop. To do otherwise would be slightly odd for an open platform player and would need a lot of explaining to handset partners.

The difficulty is, of course, that most mobile telcos are currently unlikely to be wildly enthusiastic about supporting Google Voice in handsets sold and promoted by them - hence the likelihood of some sort of direct retail channel as well.