In what appears to be an amalgam of rumor, innuendo, and just making shit up, Rediff India Abroad is saying that Google will launch something sometime — perhaps a fortnight from now? — in India and is in talks with Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Essar, two of India’s most popular carriers.
In what sounds like Nigerian phishing scam, it appears that Google may or may not be provide a mobile something in India and it might not or might be a handset, a small computer, or a cybernetic turtle with a TRS-80 embedded where its digestive systems should be.
Listen: Google might be making a handset, but I seriously doubt it. They have no track record and unless the thing costs $5 and runs Ubuntu Linux, it will be a failure. I don’t care how much search stuff you put on there — Google isn’t in the hardware business.
I know I’ll eat my hat on this one and I’ve been on a losing streak recently — I blame the heat in my office — but read this:
A Google spokesperson said, “We don’t comment on market rumour or speculation. However, Google is committed to providing users with access to the world’s information, and mobile becomes more important to those efforts every day. We’re collaborating with partners worldwide to bring Google search and applications to mobile users everywhere. However, we have nothing to announce at this time.”
So they know software. Maybe a carrier prototype with an ARM compatible OS that folks can use instead of WinMo6 could be in the offing, but it’s not a phone. Although that turtle does sound cool.
Forget iPhone, the Gphone is here [Rediff]
I’m pretty sure the arrival of Google’s gPhone will shake the wireless industry even more than the arrival of Apple’s iPhone did.
I posted a few thoughts on Google’s most likely business approach here ( http://hjalli.com/?p=281 ) - and it looks to me like the wireless operators might experience some turbulence in the next months :)
Well. if you knew how most mobile phone co.s operate, you would not be talking like this. Google may just opt to source the hardware from HTC and the likes and put their software in it. Thats what they are good at. Just that it is sort of the other way round here. For instance, nokia manufactures hardware and purchases Symbian/Windows licenses. But the phone is called Nokia anyways. But a Google name is what we are talking about here.
And I dont see the reason as to why you should be so skeptical about it. The winner is you and me. The consumers. And what better place to launch than India. I am sure it would cost ~$250 or less.