Google Phone is Android HD2

It looks like Google is employing HTC to build them a phone. Those who remember the first Android device, the G1, will remember how this was to be the big Google phone on the market, Not so it would appear. Google at putting their backing in an unlocked device designed to storm and conform the market.

It’s a GSM device running Android 2.1 and reports are that it will be released in January of 2010, stateside. With a Snapdragon processor and a gorgeous OLED display the devices looks to be the HTC Passion or Dragon with heavy Googleisation. The Dragon was to be the Android equivalent of the HD2.

Some say these leaked shots below feature a Verizon branding, which might just hint that it won’t just be a GSM device as Verizon runs CDMA due to the 3G logo. However, I’m running an Acer GSM Android device and it shows the same indicator in 3G areas.

Google is building their own branded phone that they’ll sell directly and through retailers. They were long planning to have the phone be available by the holidays, but it has now slipped to early 2010. The phone will be produced by a major phone manufacturer but will only have Google branding (Microsoft did the same thing with their first Zunes, which were built by Toshiba).

There won’t be any negotiation or compromise over the phone’s design of features – Google is dictating every last piece of it. No splintering of the Android OS that makes some applications unusable. Like the iPhone for Apple, this phone will be Google’s pure vision of what a phone should be.

Source Techcrunch and The Unlockr