Google Appears Closer to Releasing Its Own Phone

In recent months, tech blogs have been abuzz with rumors that Google is planning to market its own smartphone based on its Android operating system. The plan would signal a more aggressive effort by Google, which so far has relied on partners to build and market Android phones, to become a force in mobile devices. It could also put Google at odds with those partners, which include Verizon Wireless and Motorola, and it would sharpen its competition with Apple, whose iPhone dominates the high-end smartphone market in the United States.

Google employees who asked not to be identified confirmed recently that the company was indeed helping to develop new hardware and software for Android phones and coming up with new ways to get those phones into the hands of consumers, but they refused to give more details. They insisted that the project would not alienate allies, as Google planned to work with partners on it.

Now Google’s efforts in this area appear to be bearing fruit. On Friday, Google began distributing new phones to employees, who began posting comments to Twitter about them, as TechCrunch reported. Some of them referred to the device as the new “Google phone.”

On Saturday morning, Google confirmed that it was testing a new concept in mobile phones, writing in a blog post that it was “dogfooding” the devices, an expression that comes from the idea that companies should eat their own dog food, or use their own products.
We recently came up with the concept of a mobile lab, which is a device that combines innovative hardware from a partner with software that runs on Android to experiment with new mobile features and capabilities, and we shared this device with Google employees across the globe. This means they get to test out a new technology and help improve it.

Unfortunately, because dogfooding is a process exclusively for Google employees, we cannot share specific product details.

A Google spokeswoman, Katie Watson, declined to give more information.

Several reports say the phones being given to employees are unlocked, meaning they are not tied to a particular wireless carrier. It is not clear if Google would sell unlocked phones directly to consumers. A Google employee said the phone was made by the Taiwanese company HTC and runs a new version of Android. The touch-screen device has no keyboard and appears to be a slightly larger and thinner version of the HTC MyTouch, which is sold in the United States by T-Mobile.

The new device appears to have impressed some of the people who saw it. The Twitter user GreatWhiteSnark said: “A friend from Google showed me the new Android 2.1 phone from HTC coming out in Jan. A sexy beast. Like an iPhone on beautifying steroids.”

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