About a month ago I wrote that Google was in talks with Orange about releasing a Google branded cell phone. Today, Engadget has released additional details about such a phone from a tipster who claims to have an “inside scoop.”
According to Joe Tipster, the Google phone will be called Google Switch and is the result of a collaboration with Samsung. It is a button-less touchscreen device with GPS functionality built-in for integration with Google Maps. The phone contact management system is an extended implementation of Gtalk that combines Gmail, text messaging and instant messaging. Also, the device is said to have no internal storage capacity, meaning that everything would be run over a network via a web interface (not sure how they would accomplish this, maybe all their dark fiber networks).
Whether this is fact or fiction remains to be seen, however one can’t help but play the “what if” card on this one. This device would simply be incredible, and would definitely have my vote over an iPhone, even if it didn’t have music playback capability. I use Google for the majority of my online services, so to be able to access them via my mobile would do wonders for accessibility and mobility. Let’s just hope they don’t bring Cingular into the equation.
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[...] According to venture capitalist Simeon Simeonov, the Google Phone dubbed “Switch” is definitely in production. He claims that it will be a Blackberry-like device with a C++ core with OS bootstrap — perhaps Linux? On top of the C++ will be an optimized version of Java, as well as vector-based 2D presentation. In addition it will have many services, while an assortment of Google services is a no-brainer, Simeonov claims that Google Switch will have VoIP. [...]