Hedging its bets on the mobile phone market, Google (News - Alert) Inc. is developing a low-cost Internet connected phone, according to a Reuters report quoting a number of industry insiders and analysts.
The report said Google would not directly confirm whether a mobile phone is in the works, but indications appear to hint that the search engine company is looking closely at the possibility.
"Mobile is an important area for Google," Google spokeswoman Erin Fors was quoted as saying Friday in the report. "We remain focused on creating applications and establishing and growing partnerships with industry leaders to develop innovative services for users worldwide. However, we have nothing further to announce."
Google has made several recent moves that hint the company is seeking to broaden its reach beyond the familiar search engine, particularly trying to broaden the appeal of its Google Talk instant messaging service which faces still competition from established services from Yahoo!, Microsoft (News - Alert), and America Online.
In early February, Google announced that users of its Google Talk instant messaging service could connect to Truphone mobile handsets anywhere in the world for free. Truphone is free software that helps Wi-Fi equipped Nokia (News - Alert) mobile phones make VoIP calls over Wi-Fi connections.
Google recently unveiled software that enables users to add Google Talk to their web pages without downloading. The software is an Adobe Flash Player 8-compatible interface users can added to their web page.
The mobile phone space could be the next area Google is looking at. Given that Apple (News - Alert) Inc. is going to war with its iPhone and other consumer electronics companies are developing high-end mobile phones that incorporate PDA and PC functions, Google likely does not want to be left out.
Last year, rumors abounded that Google was entering the PC market, only to prove untrue when the company instead unveiled software to simplify PC usage. This time, reports indicate Google could be serious about entering the mobile phone market.
According to the Reuters report, Richard Windsor, a phone analyst with brokerage Nomura in London, was quoted as saying Google representatives at a major European conference in Germany confirmed the company is working on its own phone device.
"Google has come out of the closet at the CeBIT (News - Alert) trade fair admitting that it is working on a mobile phone of its own," Windsor reportedly said in a note entitled "Google Phone: From myth to reality."
Simeon Simeonov, a Boston-based venture capitalist with Polaris Venture Partners, was quoted by Reuters as stating in a March 4 blog that insider sources revealed Google would develop a Blackberry-like communications device that could make VoIP calls.
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Spencer Chin is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To see more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.
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in packets over the Internet. I...more |
802.11 (Wi-Fi) | X | | The IEEE 802.11 wireless LAN standard is usually referred to as Wi-Fi-Wireless Fidelity or WLAN Wireless Local Area Network. The 802.11 standard has evolved into a number of sub-standards 802.11a/b/g...more |
Voice over IP (VoIP) | X | | A real-time communications system that converts voice into digital packets containing media and signaling data that travel over networks using Internet Protocol....more |
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