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Google Phone may be VOIP only [Rumour]

by Mihir Patkar / Nov 19, 2009 10:22:51 IST / Tags: Google, Google Voice, TechCrunch, Motorola Droid, Google Design

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Yesterday, TechCrunch shook up the Web with the news that Google might be coming out with its own branded, self-designed mobile phone after all. News that the fabled ‘Google Phone’ is real after all had criticisms and expectations pouring in from each side, with a lot of nay-sayers citing a CNET article where Google Android CEO Andy Rubin said the company is not making hardware.

This wouldn’t be the first time that a gadget-maker has denied the existence of a product till it finally announced the same – Apple’s iPhone and Microsoft’s Zune come to mind immediately. But now, TechCrunch has backtracked ever so slightly on their earlier stance, saying that a “thin source” has led them to believe the new Google Phone would probably not be a ‘phone’ in the technical sense of the term.

The device would still let users make calls, but they would be only through voice-over Internet protocol (VOIP), as the Google Phone would be a data-only gadget. This could work out well for Google anyway, since their push for Google Voice would see to it that most users would find it easy to adopt the VOIP idea.

TechCrunch’s sources say that AT&T is interested in the idea, mostly because they would not want any of their competitors to get in on the act.

If true, this could be a bold new step for Google – reinventing the telephone itself!

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