Google Cellphone Launching in Two Weeks, Indian Report Claims

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Digital Journal — Call it the most-anticipated product launch circulating in the rumour mill: Google is expected to debut its mobile phone in two weeks in India, according to Indian news site Rediff.com.

The report said Google is in talks with several of India’s top wireless providers, including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar and state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam. The site also wrote the “Gphone” launch will also be released simultaneously in Europe and the U.S.

Rediff reporters contacted a Google spokesperson who neither confirmed nor denied the report. However, the spokesperson stressed:

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.

As previously reported on Digital Journal, Google has been working on a cellphone that will emphasize simple Web browsing. Google isn’t shy about making its wireless intentions known: Google CEO Eric Schmidt week said the company would “probably” participate in an auction of wireless airwaves, or spectrum, to be held in the U.S. early next year, CBC News reported.

But there’s no clear path for any company to join the wireless industry. U.S. regulatory approval is the only hurdle that Google is waiting to cross, Rediff said, adding how Google has invested up to $8 billion US for its global wireless expansion.

Exact details of what can be expected in two weeks are still unknown. But that’s not stopping tech journalists from speculating about the Gphone’s specs. As TechCrunch compiled in a post, Engadget claimed the device will come with a button-less touchscreen and built-in GPS to navigate around Google Maps (see photo here). ZDNet believed the phone is built by Samsung and is a 3G device with Wi-Fi. And the Register reported that the Google phone would include Wi-Fi, 3G and a possible partnership with UK mobile operator Orange.

There’s no doubt Google is hoping to jump on the mobile bandwagon. iPhone users can even experience a sliver of what Google can do on the platform, since the search-engine giant partnered with Apple to produce email and maps for the handset. But now that the hype is building to a booming crescendo, the Gphone launch could muscle its way into the attention of early adopters worldwide. It’d be ridiculous to speculate the Gphone will be a better product than anything else on the market, but has Google done anything shoddy so far?

The biggest question still spinning across the blogosphere is whether this Indian rumour is substantiated. Will the Gphone truly launch in two weeks, with no marketing or even a whisper of an announcement? No matter the release date, Google’s wireless intentions are plainly apparent. What it intends to do with that market entry remains to be seen. And while it may remain a mystery, Google’s cellphone will still be the most popular dinner topic at bloggers’ roundtables for many months.