eWEEK content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More.
Rumors of the Google Phone appear to not be as exaggerated as many people believe.
Gizmodo Nov. 30 cited a trusted source “who’s seen it with their own eyes, the “it” being a Google-branded smartphone running a new flavor of Google’s Android mobile operating system. Gizmodo noted:
“Over the next few weeks, Google Phones (most probably in early, prototype form) will flood the Mountain View campus. They’ll don large LCDs while running a new version of Android-either Flan or the version of Android beyond it-which our source spotted running on Google’s handset as well as a laptop”
Gizmodo also believes the new flavor of Android OS will come strapped with Google Voice support, fanning the flames of rumors that note Google is going to use its Gizmo5 assets to enable Google Voice to connect calls.
EWEEK detailed how an integrated devices with Google Voice and other apps could be preferable to so-called “kludge” devices cobbled together from hardware from X,Y and Z manufacturers and Google software. Gizmodo offers no other new details to fan the flames.
Either there is a conspiracy afoot to dupe leading online publications (TechCrunch, The Times of London, Gizmodo) into writing stories to create some sort of fear, uncertainty and doubt about current Android phones, such as the Motorola Droid, or the Google Phone is, very real.
Which theory gets your vote?
Meanwhile, the aforementioned Droid, that muscular, masculine smartphone with free Google Maps Navigation GPS software is apparently smashing all sorts of Android sales records and could top 1 million units shipped for the year.
Financial analyst Mark Sue of RBC Capital Markets wrote in a research note Nov. 30:
““Verizon’s big marketing push for the Droid is strengthening as we close in on the holidays, and following our round of checks, we believe about 700,000 to 800,000 Droids have been sold, making our hurdle of 1 [million] Motorola Droids achievable for 4Q09 [ending December 31],” Sue said in his research note. “Motorola, for its part, has done a good job on the production side, and our survey of over 100 stores indicates strong demand, limited stock outs, and very few returns.”“
That’s fantastic considering it launched in the first week of November.
CNET credited Verizon’s $100 million marketing campaign, highlighted by futuristic TV ads designed to appeal to adolescent boys and twenty-something men, with the push. Powering Google Search by voice in New York City’s Time Square for 20 straight hours on Black Friday didn’t hurt either.