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]