New Google Phone pictures, is the Google phone finally becoming a reality?

The rumor mill continues to churn regarding Google's venture into the mobile phone market. We've heard it called the GooglePhone, the Google Switch, and the GPhone. There have been rumors of Google partnerships with Sony, Nokia, and Samsung and of carrier releationships with Verizon, Cingular/AT&T, and T-Mobile. As time goes by, the likelihood of some of these rumors becoming a reality is increasing.

The most recent evidence points directly to a partnership between Google and Samsung. Google already has an existing relationship with Samsung, the world's largest mobile device manufacturer, offering many Google mobile services on existing Samsung phones. Recently, via mobileburn forums, pictures have surfaces from a consumer survey site which offer the latest possible rendering of the Google Phone.

Google Phone Artist Rendering

The marketing mockup from which the artist's rendering of the Google Phone hails indicates the following specs for the GPhone, Google Switch, Google Phone, or whatever you want to call it: 2 megapixel camera, 3G, Wi-Fi, and a sliding QWERTY keyboard. This is a bit of a departure from earlier rumors, which suggested the Google Phone would be primarly a touch screen device like the iPhone. The phone, of course, comes loaded with all of Google's services - Google search, Google news, Blogger, Google Maps, GMail, etc. The survey also suggested a retail price of around $100 (USD) with contract, which some considering shockingly low.

The question from our camp is: do iPhone hopefuls care? Is the Google Phone a competitor in the iPhone market? After all - the Google Phone is suprisingly cheap compared to the iPhone, offers 3G connectivity, and is rumored to not be restricted to one particular carrier - rather the phone will be available for use on any network. These are certainly attractive options when compared to the iPhone. However, with the Google Phone geared more towards productivity and less towards multimedia - how big is the market overlap with the iPhone?

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Comments

i don't think iphone is overpriced. combine ipod and smartphone prices, and you'll get in to $500 area.

Yea the price for the iPhone is insane...

... but I will buy it anyway :-)

I second the storage notion. Serious iPod users (like myself) would love to replace our iPod with the iPhone, but 8GB just isn't going to cut it.

I'm still in the market for an iPhone. I can't imagine using all of the productivity features you'd expect to see on a Google Phone all that often.

On the other hand, I can see myself using the iPhone's multimedia features constantly.

yeah - I just wish they'd drop the price a bit, or at least up the storage in the phone if they're going to sell it at that price.

[...] New Google Phone pictures, is the Google phone finally becoming a … This is a bit of a departure from earlier rumors, which suggested the Google Phone would be primarly a touch screen device like the iPhone. The phone, of course, comes loaded with all of Google?s services - Google search, Google news, … [...]

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