This image leaked by Engadget possibly shows some rendition of the Google Phone
Venture capitalist Simeon Simeonov has made a post on his VC blog High Contrast that he claims to be an insider tip on the hotly anticipated, yet still speculative, Google Phone. According to Simeonov, Google has charged Andy Rubin with the task of creating the G-Phone.
Rubin, the founder of Sidekick maker Danger, arrived at Google when the search giant acquired Android, his wireless software startup. Under Rubin works a team of about 100 people reportedly slaving away on the device. Simeonov believes that Rubin is working directly on the OS of the device.
He goes on to cite Google’s acquisitions of Reqwireless and Skia as definite indications that it is working on creating its own handset. Reqwireless creates mobile applications and, before getting bought, Skia had developed a vector-based presentation engine capable of rendering “state-of-the-art” 2D graphics on mobile phones.
Semeonov sees these acquisitions as evidence of G-Phone rumblings at the Google lab. He also claims that, in contrast to the Google Orange HTC phone rumors, the new device is being developed in conjunction with Samsung (citing this press release) and the Switch codename is once again being bandied about.
The new device is said to be similar to a similar to a Blackberry in design. It will be coded on a C++ core with an OS bootstrap. Like the Sidekicks, Java will be optimized to run on the device. And it will include a multitude of services like G-Talk and such.
He does present a rather compelling case and truly seems to have considered many intricate details surrounding the G-Phone. So is it valid?
I’m going to go out on a generously solid limb here and agree with Mr. Simeonov. It’s not a stretch to believe that Google would indeed be working on such a device. Distributing content, like targeted ads, wirelessly would be a hell of a lot cheaper than than pushing it through pipes. Plus it’s hardly controversial these days to claim that wireless is the future.
The world is going untethered as quickly as technology permits. It should come as no surprise that the Internet’s largest and fastest growing company would be continuously looking for ways to proliferate.
The Real Google Phone [HighContrast]