No Google phone just yet

Posted by T3 Online on Wed 21 Mar 2007

Man from the big G suggests rumours of an upcoming mobile could be wide of the mark.

We've been quite excited about the prospect of a Google-made mobile phone for a while now, but it seems any such device might not arrive for a wee while yet.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Google's Richard Kimber (South-East Asia managing director of sales and operation, if you're wondering) stated yesterday: "At this point in time, we are very focused on the software, not the phone."

Kimber went on to say that, while Google is extremely interested in moving its search engine and other technologies to mobile devices, it would be staying out of what - with the imminent launch of the iPhone - is fast becoming a very crowded handset hardware market.

These remarks seem to make a lot of sense - for one thing, Google is a software company with little experience in hardware. Mind you, Apple had no experience in mobile phones before the iPhone, and was solely a computer company before launching the iPod. Our advice: watch this space...