Google announced it is presently trialing a new Android-based device, referred to as a "Google phone" by an employee testing the product and officially called the Nexus One according to The Wall Street Journal, which adds the web services giant designed virtually all the software powering the device, from applications to the user interface of each screen. "We recently came up with the concept of a mobile lab, which is a device that combines innovative hardware from a partner with software that runs on Android to experiment with new mobile features and capabilities, and we shared this device with Google employees across the globe," writes Google product management vice president Mario Queiroz on the Official Google Mobile Blog. "This means they get to test out a new technology and help improve it."
While Queiroz adds Google cannot share specific product details, employees are tweeting about the Nexus One and showing it off to friends. TechCrunch notes that one program manager posted on Twitter "...we all got the new Google phone. It's beautiful" while other Twitter users report seeing the handset up-close, adding the unlocked HTC-produced smartphone runs on Android 2.1 and does not feature a physical keyboard. "A sexy beast," Twitter user GreatWhiteSnark writes. "Like an iPhone on beautifying steroids."
In the past Google has consistently denied speculation it would introduce a branded Android handset, but the buzz has grown louder in recent weeks--in mid-November, TechCrunch reported the web services giant plans to release its own Android smartphone in early 2010, followed weeks later by a Gizmodo report stating prototype devices were on the way to Google's Mountain View, Calif. Campus, all running a new version of the Android OS.
For more on the Google phone:
- read this Official Google Mobile Blog entry