Didn’t see this discussion until it hit Techmeme, but: Venture capitalist Simeon Simeonov says he has more info on the long-rumored Google Phone, including the following:
- The Google Phone is called Switch
- Google has 100 folks working on it
- Danger founder Andy Rubin is heading the team
- Google is using tech from two companies it bought: Skia and Reqwireless
- Google partnered with Samsung earlier this year, and it could be a distributor/handset maker
- Switch is a “BlackBerry-like, slick device” running Java on a C++ core with perhaps a Linux bootstrap
- Google will sell and market the phone online, relying on the carriers for their networks only. Simeonov calls this a “dumb pipe.”
Herr Schmidt has said on several occasions that Google wants to work with carriers to sell data plans. And Schmidt has said the phones could eventually be free if the user accepts targeted advertising.Below, a supposed image of the Google Phone, leaked to Gizmodo a few months ago.