The Google Phone is not a phone but a software

Search engine giant Google ended today months of speculation of the existence of a Google Phone (or GPhone) by announcing that the GPhone is actually not a mobile phone but, rather, a free cell phone software package.

The Open Handset Alliance (OHA), to which Google is a member of, is to release an open-source platform called Android, named for and based on the technology of a company acquired by Google in 2005.

Google will not be making the phones, nor will there be Google branding on the handsets. Instead, it will work with cell phone manufacturers who have agreed to use Google’s programs in their devices.

The release of Android is expected to undercut rivals who license their own mobile operating systems such as Symbian, Linux, and Windows Mobile and, at the same time, make smart phones less expensive since manufacturers won’t have to pay for software.

We believe this was a smart move on Google’s part because now it can easily take part in the mobile internet industry without incurring the ire of existing handset makers who are wary of new competitors, such as the case of Apple and its iPhone.

It still remains a possibility, though, that Google will eventually do an Apple and launch their own brand of mobile phones in the future.

The pictures you’ve seen in this post are just some of the rumored Google Phone designs. The actual “Google Phones” will be launched in the second half of 2008.