Update: Google kinda, sorta, partially admits “Google Phone is real.”
The internet is abuzz this morning with a TechCrunch article stating that the long rumored “Google Phone” has been completely, 100% confirmed. According to TechCrunch sources and pictured Twitter remarks, the Google Phone has been handed out to an unknown number of Google Employees who are claiming “revolutionary changes.” Having discussed with our sources regarding the matter we are able to get further remarks that T-Mobile will support this launch as we have previously stated. Here is what we know:
- The phone will be sold strictly by Google, T-Mobile will NOT sell the device
- Billing, General Questions and General Troubleshooting questions will be handled by T-mobile
- Handset features, Handset Exchange and Advanced Device Troubleshooting will be handled by Google and/or Call Center Partners
- T-Mobile hopes that by supporting the launch, they will have the opportunity to add additional customers
- HTC is the definite manufacturer and the device IS believed to be the HTC Passion, the word Passion is tossed around everywhere according to our sources
- Postpaid and Flexpay accounts are both currently slighted for support
- No information is available as to whether or not T-Mobile is the exclusive partner
Last night, we started seeing some Tweets from Google employees and others about a new Android-powered Google phone that was apparently handed out at an “all hands” meeting. Now Google is confirming
that it is indeed “dogfood” testing a new Android device with employees around the world.
But this isn’t just another Android phone. Very trustworthy sources who have seen the phone say that it is the Google Phone we first wrote about last month (despite the uninformed saying we were dreaming). It will be branded Google and sold by Google as an unlocked phone, which could change everything. As we wrote in our original post:
Google is building their own branded phone that they’ll sell directly and through retailers. They were long planning to have the phone be available by the holidays, but it has now slipped to early 2010. The phone will be produced by a major phone manufacturer but will only have Google branding (Microsoft did the same thing with their first Zunes, which were built by Toshiba).
There won’t be any negotiation or compromise over the phone’s design of features – Google is dictating every last piece of it. No splintering of the Android OS that makes some applications unusable. Like the iPhone for Apple, this phone will be Google’s pure vision of what a phone should be.
The phone itself is being built by HTC, with a lot of input from Google. It seems to be a tailored version of the HTC Passion or the related HD2 (Unlocker scored some leaked pictures back in October which are of the same phone).
Here are the details we know so far about the phone: It will be called the Google Phone and will launch in early January, 2010. It won’t be sold by any one carrier, but instead will be an unlocked GSM phone. In the U.S., that means T-Mobile and possibly AT&T, whose exclusivity deal with the iPhone is about to run out. It will be running Android 2.1
The phone is “really, really fast,” says someone who has seen one in action. It runs on a Snapdragon chip, has a super high-resolution OLED touchscreen, is thinner than the iPhone, has no keyboard, and two mics. The mic on the back of the phone helps eliminate background noise, and it also has a “weirdly” large camera for a phone. And if you don’t like the touchscreen keyboard, a voice-to-text feature is supposed to let you dictate emails and notes by speaking directly into the phone.
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