As you can imagine from my dizzy heights heading up the Devicewire team it was only inevitable that at some point I would have to make comment on the rumours of a possible HTC Google phone. So what I thought I'd do is read up as much as possible and then see if we can use our contacts at HTC to get an update on the story.  

The first story I found was by the Observer reported at the tail end of last year. My initial reaction was that some how Chinese whispers had played a part and that the market had got confused and in fact the unit in question was the LG KU-580 handset pictured right. Digging a bit deeper you can find a plethora of news articles on the subject. I've listed a number of them out below to save the time for anyone else:

Aug 17 2005: Google Buys Android for Its Mobile Arsenal - Businessweek

Jun 12 2006: Google targets mobile future - BBC News

 Jun 21 2006: London Tapped for Google Mobile R&D - Businessweek  

Dec 17 2006: The future for Orange could soon be Google in your pocket - Observer

Dec 17 2006: Forget iPhone, Think Google Phone - GigaOM

Jan 18 2007: The Google Switch: an iPhone killer? - Engadget 

Mar 6 2007: Google Samsung "switch" - NextBlitz (pictured right)

Mar 6 2007: More details emerge on the mythical Google phone? - Engadget

Mar 15 2007: Google exec confirms phone in the labs - Engadget

Mar 21 2007: Google phone rumors shot down -- for the moment - Engadget

Mar 26 2007: Google working on world-changing mobile browser - Mobilementalism 

Apr 18 2007: Google Phone launching end of 2007 - Engadgetmobile

And then onto a rather interesting US patent application.  

Jun 21 2007: Google US Patent Application - US Patent and Trademark Office

Searching through the text for the word 'mobile' quickly gives you a bit of flavour of what could be expected, this is starting to look very exciting indeed.  

I then asked a source close to Google what was said when questioned about the subject, the reply was that the answer was well scripted but not forthcoming with any greater detail. I tried to push a bit further but it was obvious that I wasn't really getting anywhere fast. We are currently awaiting the official line from our contacts at HTC, we'll keep you all posted as soon as we know any more.  

So all I have really achieved is probably adding extra hype around this much awaited product. I will report back as soon as anything new surfaces. Whatever happens I would hazard a guess that the market is certainly ready for fully integrated mobile search tool with additional community based functionality. The thought of a stylish device with integrated web, search, mail, maps certainly presses all of the right buttons on the gadget front. Hooked up with the right white and yellow pages or even VoIP call links this could fly. Of course you'd need the right services. Well there I go again off on another tangent that I should probably save for another post. Anyhow Google and HTC please bring it on we are all waiting, still..............