gphone

Surprisingly little has been said by the blogosphere about the possibilities of OpenSocial working on the Gphone (we believe set of Gphones). While a lot has been said about the Gphone and OpenSocial in separate articles as separate subjects, I have not been able to find any that discusses both working together. Both applications functioning in concert is a mobile game changer and if realized we will all be speaking into our Gphone handsets, “iPhone who?”

I've made many calls to the e28 company today in an attempt to get e28's confirmation on the e28 Google Gphone story we broke last night. I finally reached someone in the Hong Kong office that took my call but the remark was a terse, "we cannot comment on this story." When I pushed to speak to someone that could comment I was told, "sir, no one here will comment on the story."

On the heals of the latest Google and Verizon announcement, we've just confirmed a tip from an industry insider that China's e28 is going to be a Google Gphone software and handset manufacturer (this is from one source only - not two as we usually receive). We have not been able to confirm whether the Chinese smart phone manufacturer will have the exclusive Gphone software and handset rights. E28 is a leading provider of mobile Linux convergence technology and will fit the Google mantra of keeping everything open.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Verizon is in discussions with Google to develop a Gphone. In a direct competitive play to Cingular/AT&T’s relationship with the iPhone, Verizon would become the main hardware provider for the Google Gphone operating system. No word yet if there is to be an India launch of the Gphone as earlier and widely reported across the internet a few months ago.

Wow, we have seen a lot of rumors about the so-called Gphone for India but are they true? A product to be released in India without any pre-marketing or announcements by Google? Where are the phones manufactured? Let’s attempt to answer these questions and provide some clarity to the situation.