The word on the street is that Google has given employees a prototype mobile phone to test, which it is reportedly planning to sell directly to consumers early next year.
The web giant handed out the mobile phone, called Nexus One, to its employees late last week, but no details are being released to the public. Mario Queiroz, vice-president of product management confirmed that Google researches its products via its employees saying and rumours are that the Nexus One is set to launch in early January 2010. (why wait until after Christmas?).
Google plans to sell the phone itself online and not through a wireless carrier. If this were to be the case, users would have to buy their wireless service separately via suppliers such as Orange, but in my opinion it is hard to see O2 supplying such a product as it would surely compete with the iphone.
The phone will run on Google’s Android mobile operating system, which the web giant has already implemented on various mobile phones through partnerships with hardware makers and wireless carriers over the past two years.
Manufactured by HTC, the Nexus One is thinner than the iPhone, has no keyboard, and features a voice-to-text service.
Bath Marketing Consultancy says watch this space, but it would have to be something major to prize my iphone 3Gs out of my hands!
