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March 5, 2007

Google Might Work on an OS for Mobile Phones

Google bought in 2005 a company called Android. Business Week reported at that time that "Android has operated under a cloak of secrecy, so little is known about its work. Rubin & Co. have sparingly described the outfit as making software for mobile phones, providing little more detail than that. One source familiar with the company says Android had at one point been working on a software operating system for cell phones."

Simeon Simeonov speculates that Andy Rubin, Android's founder, "has a team of about 100 people at Google working on the Google Phone". Recently, we found out that Google bought a small company named Skia in 2005. "Skia's first product, SGL, is a portable graphics engine capable of rendering state-of-the-art 2D graphics on low-end devices such as mobile phones, TVs, and handhelds." Simeon found from a source that Google's phone could be:
* Blackberry-like, slick device
* C++ core w/ OS bootstrap
* Optimized Java running on the C++ core
* Vector-based presentation courtesy of Skia's technology
* Many services, including VoIP

It's unclear whether or not Google actually develops a phone, but they're aware that mobile phones grow faster than computers in terms of users and a presence in this market is important.

Related:
Google and Orange could launch a mobile phone
Samsung phones include Google applications

2 comments:

  1. A "Google Phone" could be a little far-fetched. What if it was simply this:
    - the Android acquisition and technology were leveraged to work on mobile products such as the "Gmail for Mobile" or "Mobile Search".
    - the acquisition of Skia was made to improve the rendering of applications like Google Maps on mobile phones and the recent demonstration in the iPhone.

    What other hints do you have that they are working on things of a much bigger scope than these?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No you dumbass, I bet they make an actual Google phone.

      Delete

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