Google's Gphone - not a device but an operating system

Rumour, conjecture and base excitement. The Gphone dance continues with the Herald Tribune reporting that Gphone — as they understand it — is an operating system (based on Linux) and that the search engine giant won’t be releasing hardware into the wild.

Link: With ‘phone’ project, Google has mobile ad dollars in its sights – International Herald Tribune

But the GPhone is not likely to be the second coming of the iPhone – and Google’s goals are very different from those of Apple.

Google wants to extend its dominance of online advertising to the mobile Internet, a small market today but one that is expected to grow rapidly. It hopes to persuade wireless carriers and mobile phone makers to offer phones based on its software, according to people briefed on the project. The cost of those phones may be partly subsidized by advertising that appears on their screens.

Google is expected to unveil the fruit of its mobile efforts this year, and phones based on its technology could be available next year.