Google reportedly testing its own Android phone

According to a number of reports over the weekend, Google is testing a new Android-based mobile phone. The new "Google Phone" was reportedly handed out to a large number of the advertising-and-search giant's employees for testing during an all-hands meeting on Friday, the 10th of December.

In a post on the Official Google Mobile Blog, Mario Queiroz, Vice President of Product Management at Google, said that the company often asks employees to test new products "for quick feedback and suggestions for improvements" in a process that the company calls "dogfooding", referring to the phrase "eating your own dogfood". Queiroz notes that, as "dogfooding is a process exclusively for Google employees", the company will not be sharing any specific or official product details until after their "dogfood diet". As the phone has already been handed out to a large number of employees, details and images of the new device have already begun to leak via Twitter and other online outlets, painting a picture of what to expect for the upcoming device.

The Google Phone, which appears to be named the "Nexus One", appears to feature version 2.1 of Google's open source Android mobile operating system. It also appears, according to FCC filings, to include support for AT&T and T-Mobile US 3G bands. Based on similar devices from HTC, it is believed the Nexus One has a 3.7" AMOLED display with a 1Ghz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, a 5 megapixel camera, expandable memory via a Micro-SD card slot and two microphones to eliminate background noise. An exclusive holiday game for the device has also surfaced.

According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, Google will begin selling the phone directly to consumers as early as next year. TechCrunch, however, claims that the device will be available as early as next month and will be sold directly by Google as an unlocked handset for GSM carriers. Google have not commented on these claims.

(crve)