Google apparently has an issue with charging consumers money. Let’s face it, the world’s largest search giant isn’t a search engine, it’s an ad machine. A perfectly targeted one, at that: you tell it what you’re looking for, it offers up commercial options for your perusal. It’s a great idea.

And the word is coming down the grapevine that if or when the Google Phone launches, that the model will be similar. You’ll get free service on your handset, though it’ll be tinged with Google ads.

Not bad, really. And more rumors say that the Goog is shopping it’s prototype around the manufacturers to try to get a sweet production deal. If the handset is cheap enough, and the service is free, who wouldn’t jump ship?

And it’s not just about the calls: the iPhone sounds like crap, but people lust after it for it’s other features. Fair enough, but it proves the point that as we continue on with wireless data, voice calls will take the backseat for many users to data apps, and that’s wonderful for us nerds.

Google Showing Phone Prototype to Manufacturers [Ministry of Tech]