I have a computer, give me a rotary dial phone that just makes phone calls. Anyone out there think of doing that with a cell-phone, build it into the body of an old rotary phone? That'd mess with people's heads! Leave the cord loose like you tore it out of the wall, frayed ends etc. I think you'd get some looks walking down the street, talking on a 'broken' phone! Kind of like that guy that built his computer into the body of an old printer, re-used the outsides but built the machine into the old printer chassis. Pretty creative...

Everybody has a razorPhone
The iPhone is so last week.
The gPhone is the next snowball to traverse cool stuff hell.
Best Buy is already clearing shelf space for their next generation communications device,
The bUffoon.

Who designed that thing?

It looks like an old Smith-Corona.

Dr. Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, sits on Apple's board of directors.

This is hardly an attack on Apple's product. There is room for more than one way to access information and call people. Google's entry into this market is a much bigger threat to Palm and Micro$oft, with their thoroughly flawed approach to design and customer service.

The Google OS will run quite nicely side by side with OS X on the same machine. None of those pesky licensing shananigans M$ is pulling.

Possibly less than 200 bucks. Possibly free.

It's going to be an interesting marketplace. I'm amazed that there hasn't been more flak from the current big players like Verizon, AT&T, etc. Very rarely (if ever) does a business model get scrapped and retooled without fierce resistance from the Old Guard.

Nevertheless, I'll blow my own horn and say that I've seen this coming. My prediction is a Google operating system, something this article mentioned very briefly, but I think the time is right.

The big picture is that Google will bid on the RF spectrum that is coming up for sale in 2008. If they get it, they can build a network akin to wi-fi that will blanket the country.

But the big innovation will be the Google revenue model. Google makes money on advertising, not subscriptions and contracts with their users.

So ultimately Google can offer Voice-Over-IP phone communication, Internet access and browsing and on-line applications WITHOUT CHARGING A MONTHLY FEE. The whole thing will be supported by advertising, just like network TV 30 years ago.

So good-bye AT&T, Sprint and all the other pirates making a fortune off of teenagers who can't control themselves and run up expensive "overage" minutes. Good-bye to two year contracts at $100/month for cell phone "service". Good-bye to monthly bills and special charges that defy any logical explanation.

Maybe in two years you will have everything you need in the palm of your hand for $200.

I'm ready.

Google is one outfit that, without regard to people's feelings about them (e.g. dadw5boys above), can change the game. If they choose, and (big) if their software works well, the utility of their mobile will steer prospective customers in ways that Apple's "cool gadgetry" can not.

Ultimately, it's all going to be about interoperability. Playing well with others still matters, and stands a very good chance of being even more of a determining factor as we go forward. The current HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray debacle is a perfect example of how not to develop and deploy a new technology. Google, I think, is smarter than that.

Wow, is that UNSEXY TECH or what?

It looks like a grey turd.

Heh.

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Do you believe Google will now dominate the mobile phone business -----> http://www.youpolls.com/details.asp?pid=432

That's cool. Look what the iPhone has done. It has pushed other mobile phone companies into designing, building and selling phones that will allow their customers to be all that they can be.