Rumor Mill: Google's gPhone is back but it might be VoIP-based

It seems like only yesterday when the wireless world was abuzz with rumors of the fabled gPhone--a Google designed and manufactured phone that would lay waste to all other phones in its path. It turned out the rumors were only partially true with the release of Google's mobile operating system Android and the G1--a rebranded HTC smartphone released by T-Mobile where the G presumably stands for Google. Well now that I've begun following VoIP a familiar story seems to have followed me here--Google might still release a gPhone but it might actually be a VoIP phone rather than a straight-up mobile phone.

The TechCrunch/Washington Post folks have "absolutely confirmed" that Google is working on a data-only phone that uses Google's growing VoIP services to offer calling for customers. Without stepping into the wireless world or the telecom world Google would get data services from carriers and offer low-cost voice-plan-free phones that would make calls through its GoogleTalk/Google Voice/Gizmo5-based offering. Google could even issue phone numbers through Google Voice and provide number portability for those that want to move to the new offering.

Of course all this is still in the rumor stages (even with the 'absolutely confirmed' note, some analysts are still in doubt), and if there is one thing we can count on its that the technology rumor mill is often more about stirring up interest in companies and products than it's about actual devices being launched. I suspect that the Google Phone already walks among us in the form of every Android phone on the market. Since Google deals in software, a simple upgrade to the Android system making the 'GoogleVoIP' offering part of the system would be enough to make all these rumors come true even before Google launched its own branded version. Deals with phone companies to provide data-only service would be just as easy to make happen.

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