14 DAY TRIAL // Several rumors regarding a possible Google phone spread around the Internet, at first claiming that Google and Orange were in a partnership to provide a mobile phone manufactured by HTC and running Windows Mobile.
After that, leaked photos of the Google Switch showed up. Google's announcing that it is going to provide mobile services on select Samsung handsets was enough to make everyone believe that Google and Samsung actually built the Switch together.
At once, the Google/Orange/HTC idea was dropped and the Switch, made by Samsung was the actual thing. Since then, other rumors have also surfaced.
Reportedly, Andy Rubin, the founder of Danger, has a team of people at Google that is currently working on the Google Phone. And according to recent information, the Google phone will be a Blackberry-like, slick device, including many services like VoIP, vector-based presentation with Skia's technology, optimized Java running on the C++ core.
Also, the mobile phone with it's own OS is said to come with ad support and be extremely low cost or even free and it looks like it will end up being offered by multiple carriers instead of just one, since Google is said to be planning distribution relationships with several carriers by allowing them to minimize subscription and marketing costs.
Frankly, I'd rather believe the Google Switch version, since a big touchscreen phone is much more interesting than a low cost Blackberry look-alike. But the chances of the Switch coming to life are very slim, and if there's to be a Google phone, it will most likely be much more basic than that, and kind of like the device described here. With so many rumors showing up once in a while, in a short time, things are bound to become clearer.