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No ads while using the phone. Just directed searches, most likely. Think about now, when you Google for something. The highest paying comes up first. So you're already participating in some "ads".

No, wrong. Totally wrong. When you search for something and there's an adwords keyword that matches your search, you'll see "sponsored links" clearly marked as such, but the actual search results are NOT paid for. This is actually a huge reason why Google has succeeded where other companies (who did allow pay-for-placement search results, like Overture) have mostly fallen by the wayside. Pay-for-placement = lousy search results.

The real problem with Google is their atrocious attitude towards privacy and data collection. Consider what your Google searches on a daily basis might reveal about you and your life - and then remember that Google is collecting and aggregating this information indefinitely. Now Google is trying to buy Doubleclick which already has a huge database that links real names, addresses, and browsing histories collected from sites that participate in DC's network (a vast chunk of the net).

At least with a web browser you can block Google's cookies. When you buy Google's phone, you'll never be able to keep Google from knowing an absurd amount about you - your real name, your browsing history, the contents of your email and your address book, the numbers of everyone you call, even your physical movements (phone locations are tracked for "enhanced 911 service" - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E911#Wireless_Enhanced_911). The potential for misuse of this information by anyone who as access to it is enormous - and the incentives to misuse this information grow every day.

No thanks. I still use Google's search because their results are unparalleled, but I don't love or trust the company, and I'm not interested in handing over such intimate details of my life in exchange for a shiny gadget.
 
That sure sounds like what people were saying a year ago about the iPhone. except replace Google with Apple and hardware with mobile phone.

I think the idea is that google would not make the hardware... HTC would. Google would offer its apps, cloud support + os support. Personally, I think the HTC touch looks really cheesy.. and I would be reluctant to buy a google phone.. they creep me out. Regardless, 100$ is not bad for any phone, much less a phone with a touch screen interface.
 
I think a lot of folks are underestimating the challenges a Google phone faces in terms of routes to market.

Google has no presence in the commodity hardware market (the Google search appliance isn't commodity consumer hardware), it certainly has no competency. While I think they're a very well managed company that has shown their ability to execute, they have also shown good judgement in knowing what juggernauts are outside the aegis of their core competencies.

Google's products are software. Sure, HTC would make the hardware as many here suggest, but in order for Google to find itself into a Western market they have to partner to get to market with companies that are all very un-Googlish bedmates.

I'm not saying it can't or won't happen, but will it happen in a form that is a direct iPhone competitor or in a timeframe to impinge on the iPhone's dominance of the new market it's created for the not-a-smartphone smartphone? Highly unlikely and wishful thinking....

More likely that Google will goto market with Apple and deliver high-value services and software, isn't that what they do best? And oh yeah, isn't customer service, industrial design, and marketing what Apple does pretty damn good, too? Sounds like a match made in heaven to me...seems to me Google has a lot more to gain in going to market WITH Apple than competing AGAINST them...
 
I think a lot of folks are underestimating the challenges a Google phone faces in terms of routes to market.

Google has no presence in the commodity hardware market (the Google search appliance isn't commodity consumer hardware), it certainly has no competency. While I think they're a very well managed company that has shown their ability to execute, they have also shown good judgement in knowing what juggernauts are outside the aegis of their core competencies.

Google's products are software. Sure, HTC would make the hardware as many here suggest, but in order for Google to find itself into a Western market they have to partner to get to market with companies that are all very un-Googlish bedmates.

I'm not saying it can't or won't happen, but will it happen in a form that is a direct iPhone competitor or in a timeframe to impinge on the iPhone's dominance of the new market it's created for the not-a-smartphone smartphone? Highly unlikely and wishful thinking....

More likely that Google will goto market with Apple and deliver high-value services and software, isn't that what they do best? And oh yeah, isn't customer service, industrial design, and marketing what Apple does pretty damn good, too? Sounds like a match made in heaven to me...seems to me Google has a lot more to gain in going to market WITH Apple than competing AGAINST them...

Amen:)
 
Apparently, Google will just make a OS (like Windows Mobile) then other companies will make the hardware (like Windows Mobile)
 
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