Exec Confirms Google Phone

cyberianpan writes "The head of Google in Spain and Portugal has confirmed that Google is working on a mobile phone. "Some of the time the engineers are dedicated to developing a mobile phone," This could be the 20% free time development but publicizing that would be stupid. Obviously this phone could link in with Google Earth/Maps... it is a marketers dream for targeted advertising."

Re:Magical Google phone?

[morgan_greywolf]

How is that different than other phones? I've heard lots of bells and whistles over the years about phones being a portal to direct advertising and that I'd get ads pushed to my phone constantly and, at least myself and my circle of contacts, it's. just. not. happening.

You're kidding me, right? I have a Motorola Razr V3i from Sprint. I get SMS spam from Sprint just about every other day (it's gotten worse in the past 3 months or so). Plus, the phone itself is loaded with demo software (including a handy-dandy psuedo-GPS feature from a company called Handmark) that's expired since I got it -- this in itself is a form of advertising. Plus the Internet browsing experience is chock-full of advertising and 'popups'.

Interestingly enough, I already have GMail and Google Maps installed on my phone. Works great and also includes ads.

The phone is fully capable of displaying all sorts of ads -- it has a browser with Java and support for multiple forms of video and animation and a nice big screen. I wouldn't be surprised if Sprint starting pushing out more.

Re:Ties you to their services, gives them your inf

[mhamel]

for that kind of usage, you don't need a gps. Celle phone tracking [wikipedia.org] would be enough. And it has been available for years. But I never really saw it being used.

Re:oh jolly be golly gosh willakers!

[arivanov]

O2 already has something similar using streetmap and imode for the UK. Never tried it though so cannot venture an opinion.

Re:oh jolly be golly gosh willakers!

[Bearhouse]

I guess you're in the US? Based on what I hear, you guys really get screwed-over by the cellular operators. Here in Europe, reasonable competition has ensured reasonable prices. As for the devices - well, I've got a Blackberry Pearl, and whilst the camera does not take great pictures, and the email, mp3,video etc. features will likewise not beat dedicated devices, it's a price I'm happy to pay to just carry one device. Works OK for making calls, too!

Re:Magical Google phone?

[CodeArtisan]

You're kidding me, right? I have a Motorola Razr V3i from Sprint. I get SMS spam from Sprint just about every other day (it's gotten worse in the past 3 months or so).

You do know you can opt out of Sprint SMS Spam, right ? Every message they send has an unsubscribe option.