Google’s rumoured phone already used by its employees?

15th December, 2009 by adina
Tags: Android, Google, HTC, Mobiles, Phones, Twitter

The self-branded Google Android phone, subject to numerous rumours, is supposed to be already used by Google’s staff. Twitter updates from Leslie Hawthorn, Google Program Director, or persons in contact with Google employees, like Great White Snark’s founder and CNET’s Jason Howell, report many Google phones having recently arrived at the company’s campus. The phone’s description leads to similarity with an HTC-branded, touchscreen device, running Android 2.1 and capable to work on GSM networks. The phone that developers received is unlocked and runs on AT&T, but it is not known if it would be intended solely for that carrier.

The phone was described as “an iPhone on beautifying steroids” and is probably thinner than its Apple competitor. Some of the characteristics of Android 2.1 have not been made evident but the phone seems to support animated wallpaper. It also has a scroll ball like the HTC Hero does. Further details are expected to come the next few days. A January release is possible viewing if rumours of an early 2010 availability prove to be true.

All these leaks are in contradiction with Google’s own statements, which denied a self-designed phone, and with other assumptions that the Google-branded phone would be made by Samsung or LG. Google said that its contribution to shaping hardware would be a minor one and that favouring one device over another would not be beneficial for the Android ecosystem. Considering all these elements, the Google phone might simply be the HTC Passion model, available as a regular high-end HTC Android phone for several US carriers. Motorola’s Droid was largely expected to be the Google Android phone, but apart using it to demonstrate some new Android 2.0 features, Google did not seem to really want it as its own device.

Google has only partly confirmed its own phone and has named it a “mobile lab” including “innovative hardware” and Android for testing new features. The company plans to provide much more details about its handset once the device is tested by the employees. The procedure is not new at all, as the myTouch 3G, T-Mobile G1, Google Dev Phone 1 and Google Ion have all passed through the same testing cycle.

Sources cited by Electronista reveal that although the phone can run on AT&T, it is targeted to T-Mobile like other earlier developer phones of Google. This does not, in any case, mean that phones made available to the public have to use T-Mobile’s network.

Leaks from the Wall Street Journal believe that the phone would be labelled the Nexus One and would use an all-Google software array. It would be sold directly to home customers as an unlocked device.

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