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03.07.07
Google Phone Inches Toward Reality
 By David A. Utter
The newest discussion of a Google-branded wireless device suggests a Blackberry-like gadget with VoIP capability comes from ex-Macromedia chief architect turned venture capitalist Simeon Simeonov, as he fuels the Google Phone rumor blaze.
We wondered last month if Google would pull the trigger on supporting VoIP with all of the dark fiber and potential networking capacity that it owns.
The answer today looks like "sort of, yeah."
About a hundred people under the direction of Andy Rubin, whose Android mobile software company was acquired by Google in 2005, toil away at building the Google Phone according to Simeonov's blog post.
A couple of other acquisitions are likely contributing to the development. Google made a couple of other pickups in 2005 that connect to Google Phone development.
ReqWireless has its technology in play, probably in the application suite that brings Google's online services to the mobile platform.
The other 2005 purchase received minimal attention. North Carolina-based Skia has developed a portable graphics engine that ties all of the Google Phone talk together for Simeonov:
It is the Skia acquisition that ties together the Google Phone story for me. You’d bring a guy like Andy in just because he knows mobile broadly speaking. But you really wouldn’t need Skia if you weren’t planning to own mobile presentation, i.e., create a phone top.
Google has a partnership in the mobile phone business in play with Samsung, one of the leading device makers in the world.
Samsung would tuck Google's services onto some of their phones, and possibly build a new one together called Switch.
Simeonov thinks Google will make deals with existing wireless carriers to get its phone into the hands of people at a minimal
cost.
The problem with this comes from the bitter resistance carriers have to allowing VoIP on their networks.
Google would love to see the Democratic Congress and the FCC work on smashing that barrier to entry.
It might be faster for Google to light up that dark fiber and fulfill our dream scenario than to wait for politics to enable it.
About the Author:
David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.
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