Can Google's Switch mobile compete with Apple's iPhone?
A slightly fatuous question perhaps, given that Google Switch is still a rumour, albeit one with a freshly-minted set of allegedly-leaked photos. According to Engadget, Switch will be a touch-screen device made by Samsung, but branded as Google.
It’ll have built-in GPS, allowing Google Maps based navigation features, with a contact application that’s a cross between Gmail, Google Talk and more traditional text messaging. Oh, and there won’t be any internal memory: everything will be served up over the network. Hopefully that’ll be 3G then, unlike the iPhone…
Whether this is it or not, there’s little doubt that a Google-branded mobile phone will appear at some point. The company has ramped up its mobile activities in the last year, albeit focusing on signing deals with operators like 3, Vodafone and T-Mobile.
Now that the iPhone has crossed the line from myth to real product, perhaps we can spend the next 18 months dreaming up cool ideas for the GooglePhone. Like built-in WiMAX, to make use of all those city-wide networks that (we’re told) will spring up in the next few years.
Or a direct interface to Google-owned YouTube, letting you watch vids but also upload the ones you’ve shot using the phone. It would have a camera, right? Or a dynamic version of Google Earth that lets you swoop over the Himalayas and send text messages to the Yetis. Okay, maybe that last one’s a bit ambitious. But I can dream… For now, feast your eyes on the screenshots via the link below.
(via Engadget)
