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A Google exec has confirmed that Google is developing a mobile phone but is downplaying the phone’s significance.
“Some of the time the engineers are dedicated to developing a mobile phone,” said Isabel Aguilera, Google chief executive in Spain and Portugal, to the Spanish news Web site Noticias.com. Aguilera noted that the phone was only one of 18 products in Google’s labs right now, and that Google’s mobile initiatives were designed for developing countries, suggesting that a Google Phone might not be a competitor to the Apple iPhone.
Rumors about a Google phone have been swirling for months. Less than two weeks ago, a venture capitalist said Googler Andy Rubin was heading a team of 100 Googlers in developing a phone called “Switch.” That phone supposedly runs C++ with a Linux bootstrap.
Google has also acquired mobile applications company Reqwireless and a company called Skia, whose first product is a portable graphics engine that renders 2D graphics on handhelds.