A Google Phone Announcement for Next Week?

There is increasing speculation that Google will announced a deal next week at the Mobile World Congress with the computer manufacturer, Dell to launch a Google branded mobile phone. Unnamed, but senior industry sources confirmed the move to Marketing News, although Google denied that there is an imminent announcement due.

There has been rumours for at least the past couple of years that Google would launch its own mobile phone and while the launch of the Android open mobile OS platform damped these down somewhat, Google's involvement in the ongoing US radio spectrum auction has brought them to the fore again.

During the launch of the Android platform, when asked about the potential mobile phone, Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt commented "We are not announcing a Google phone at this time,". The at this time bit was seized on as evidence that the company is still interested in the idea of moving into the hardware market.

Last February, Motorola's President of Mobile Devices resigned to take up a job as the boss of the Global Consumer division at Dell Computers.

Dell was also rumoured last April to be working with Taiwanese vendors on a Microsoft Windows Mobile based smartphone, although nothing of that has been seen since then. Around the same time, the company was named as a suitor for smartphone vendor, Palm which has managed to limp on alone since then.

On the web: Marketing Week

Posted to the site on 30th January 2008