Katie MarsalAccording to Michael Arrington of TechCrunch, the Google-branded phone has been "confirmed" through reliable, anonymous sources, and will be sold directly through retailers very soon. Though the handset was originally planned to release this holiday, it has slipped to early 2010. Though the device will be created by a major manufacturer, much like Microsoft did with the first Zunes from Toshiba, it will only have the Google brand on it.
"There won’t be any negotiation or compromise over the phone’s design of features — Google is dictating every last piece of it," Arrington said. "No splintering of the Android OS that makes some applications unusable. Like the iPhone for Apple, this phone will be Google’s pure vision of what a phone should be."
While the report claims the preceding information is from reliable sources, Arrington also provides a number of rumors in which he is less confident. He said the handset is likely to be manufactured by Korean companies LG or Samsung, though because Samsung makes a number of parts found in the iPhone, Apple could pressure the company to not accept a deal.
The report also said that Google is set to plan a "big advertising push" in January for the new hardware.
"We don't know what the device will look like, how big it will be, or even if it has a physical keyboard," Arrington said. "But we do know that Google is getting into the phone building business directly, and doesn't seem too concerned about competing with all the other device manufacturers building Android phones."
Until now, the Android platform has been included in devices created by third-party manufacturers, in much the same business model employed by Microsoft with Windows. The new Motorola Droid has been equipped with version 2.0 of the mobile operating system, which sports the company's free turn-by-turn directions application, Google Maps Navigation.
Though Android took a small share of the market in its first year with essentially one handset available, some believe its presence will grow significantly in the coming years, as the operating system expands to new hardware and carriers.
For more on the software side of Android vs. the iPhone, see AppleInsider's ongoing series:
Inside Google's Android and Apple's iPhone OS as core platforms
Inside Google's Android and Apple's iPhone OS as business models
Inside Google's Android and Apple's iPhone OS as advancing technology
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72 Comments
And the battle officially begins...
Just because Apple can do it doesn't mean Google can. Apple's historical expertise has been in user interfaces whereas Google's has been in back end services.
And that is why Apple should never have allowed Google on their board. Having said that?competition is a good thing for Apple, it keeps em on their toes.
As Gruber has already pointed out, Andy Rubin, vice president of engineering for Android at Google said just two weeks ago:
“We’re not making hardware. We’re enabling other people to build hardware.”
So either Michael Arrington is full of crap or Google is about to have a very Microsoftian moment and violate the whole system of ethics the company is built on.
Jon Gruber:
Filed Away for Future Claim Chowder: Mike Arrington Says Google Is Making Its Own Android Phone
Mike Arrington says Google is definitely making its own phone, coming in “early 2010”:
Way more interesting are the rumors we’ve been hearing for months about a pure Google-branded phone. Most of our sources have unconfirmed information, which we describe below. But there are a few things we have absolutely confirmed: Google is building their own branded phone that they’ll sell directly and through retailers. They were long planning to have the phone be available by the holidays, but it has now slipped to early 2010. The phone will be produced by a major phone manufacturer but will only have Google branding (Microsoft did the same thing with their first Zunes, which were built by Toshiba).
That puts Arrington on the same side as the almost-always-full-of-shit Scott Moritz. On the other side: Andy Rubin, vice president of engineering for Android at Google, who just two weeks ago said Google would not “compete with its customers” and “We’re not making hardware. We’re enabling other people to build hardware.”
So either Mike Arrington is totally wrong or Andy Rubin is a liar.
At the outset of Google’s Android initiative, I was a proponent of their creating a Google-branded, Google-designed reference handset. But at this point, after promising their hardware partners for 18 months that they wouldn’t do that, I don’t see how Google could do it without infuriating their partners and spoiling their trust. It’d be like what Microsoft did to its PlaysForSure partners when it introduced the Zune.
EDIT:
Gazobee beat me to it!