This article makes out that there will be a gPhone. They denounced it, the machine doesn't exist, nor will it in the near future. Google is an application company, they develop for platforms.
This is actually breaking news, because sources indicate that the GPhone will not actually be a phone, but rather a software suite package for mobile devices, based on linux.
So the idea of a GPhone device competing directly with the iPhone wont happen right now. Google simply wants other handset makers to use their cell phone software (they dont charge any license fees, it is entirely ad funded).
I'm a bit disappointed they wont build special hardware but hopefully some of the good handset makers will adopt Google's software since it is open.
The article is whatever - Being in the handset market is a business google doesn't want to be in short term or long term.
I argue that they are moving toward the connected aware home and devices that will make handsets obsolete - as well as the cost of dealing with the new radios that will come into play in hardware when GSM is decommissioned across the united states.
Then global export issues across handsets is a whole other thing.
From outside appearances the manufacturers don't want to aid their competition by working in the open, and Google needs a next gen device to target. Now that Google is a manufacturer, they could publicly develop on a Google/Moto device.
It's probably more complex than that, but one can always hope.
I don't think Google is really interested in building hardware. They bought Motorola only for the patents. Didn't they even say that Motorola will continue to operate independently?
The new "Nexus Prime" (Google reference phone for their latest OS version) was not even made by Motorola.
"What IBM did was to create a piece of hardware which everyone bought into. And built it out of generic enough parts that it could be cloned. I'm not sure who the equivalent player this time around."
-- I don't think there is an equivalent to IBM in the handset market.
IBM had a powerful steamroller when it came to branding, sales and cash - most people hopped on the PC Compatible standard (including DOS) because it was the "sure thing". Not because DOS was inherently more open than, say, CP/M.
Google has a similar steamroller (at least in the respect that to a lot of people, Google = Internet) but unless most people are demanding a "Google Phone" then handset makers aren't going to fall over themselves to hand over their lunch to google.
Google and the developer community will have to build something pretty incredible and build a lot of mind-share with the general public, I think.
My personal theory / guess (and let's face it, we're all guessing) is that Google doesn't particularly want motorola for phones at all.
I think they've decided they need an in-house capability to produce hardware in general and they intend to suck all the juice out of Motorola and then discard its corpse so that they have the ongoing ability to invest in R&D for hardware like Google Glass, self driving cars, etc. Just like they decided years in advance of needing it that they had to have a mobile OS in their arsenal, they've now decided that strategically they have to be able to produce hardware. Not because they want to but because there are strategic initiatives they can't pursue without that.
Think of it as the biggest acqhire in history (+ a boat load of patents, of course).
> And, people familiar with the companies say, Google could decide to follow Apple's lead and build a phone from silicon to software, perhaps by creating a separate operating system for Motorola that other phone makers cannot use.
The only way I could see this happening (within the next few years) is if Google makes a Firefox OS-alike. They have way too much invested in Android to give it up so suddenly.
I'd say that Google is not interested in the phone business. After all, they did have Motorola Mobility [1].
As other said, they are after the VR stuff, and any sale will contain that bit. They will let phones run a bit, then either sell it at a bargain to other manufacturer ( Lenovo? ) or let it slowly ( or abruptly) die.
At some point Google needs to think about why these phones exist. Nobody buys them and there is no way their hardware division is turning a profit. After Stadia, I bet this is next.
Total evidence offered for YAGTR (Yet another Google tablet rumour): 0. Plus given that Google just got out of the phone handset to consumer business (because, frankly, they suck at any product that might require end user support), how likely are try to jump into another end user hardware sale/support setup?
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