Google's "Oprah Moment": An Android Phone For Everyone At Google I/O

Today at the Google I/O conference in San Francisco, Vic Gundotra, the VP Engineering for Google has a special surprise saved for the end of the show: A free HTC Magic (aka the G2) for everyone in the audience. Not only that but it comes with a SIM card with unlimited 3G access and talk time for 30 days. As Gundotra joked, he always wanted to have an “Oprah moment.”

I would have preferred a free car, but I suppose this will do. Though I do worry that Google seems to love to give these G1s away (see update). But this seems like a better deal.

Update: I previously stated it would be a G1, but it turns out, Google is giving away an HTC Magic, aka the G2 — forget everything nasty I said. Nothing but Google love for this move.

Seriously though, this is Google’s thank you to the development community for Android and Google overall. And it’s a great way to further spur development for Android, as of these boxes given away also contains the SDK.

Google has stepped up to the plate with this free phone. What will we see next week from Apple at its WWDC event? Probably nothing.