gPhone?

There's been a lot of speculation on the possibility of Google rolling out their own mobile handset and upsetting the mobile phone market.

How?

If I was Google - I'm make my own rules. What if the phone was free? Ok, nothing new there, as carriers have given away phones before. But what if the service was free? That would be disruptive. Of course, it wouldn't be free - it would be ad supported. The the best way to serve up those ads would be to have access to all the data on your phone. Much like gmail scans your email content to serve up relevant ads.

Hmm, would Americans go for this? Some folks don't care for the government to have access to their phone records to help fight the war on terror, how would they feel to Google having even more access that's been clearly outlined in their EULA (End User License Agreement)?

Of course, this would only happen if Google were to purchase a FCC license to operate their own mobile phone network, but if they got it...??

To Google, they've got the cash and it would be an interesting bet for them to see if it would work. If not, they could always be a plain jane mobile carrier with a few extra bells and whistles.

The real problem with Google doing this?

BETA

Everything that Google does is Beta. Beta this, beta that. Beta here, beta there. If Google is going to make it in these new endeavors then they need to get the mindset to execute in a manner befitting a Nokia, Sprint or Apple.

Look around Google. Lots of projects. Lots of Beta. What they don't create they buy and they've not really demonstrated good executions of acquisitions in terms of taking it to the next level.

Then again for a company that only seems to turn out beta products and services they got a heck of a market cap. ;-)