IS THERE IS gPHONE SOMEWHERE?

But there are clues are there for anyone looking for them. For a while now, the search giant has made it widely known that it wants to bid for frequency spectrum that is being vacated by television, as the medium moves from analog form to digital clarity. These frequencies could well be used to provide most Google functions on a mobile device. Even though ‘mobile device’ sounds enigmatic, the overwhelming usage figures show that in most cases, it can be safely translated to mean ‘mobile phone’.

For a while now Google has been patenting various kinds of technology, while this is not new, what’s new is that at least eight of these new patents are directly linked to technology used in mobile phones. And Google has filed these patents in a way that makes it difficult to find. The patents titles make them quite self explanatory, for example US Patent number 6785566, titled ‘Cellular Telephone Case’ or US Patent Application number US20050185060, titled ‘Image Base Inquiry System for Search Engines for Mobile Telephones with Integrated Cameras’.

While applications and granted patents shed a light on the functions, a swathe of others seek to patent technology that would enable the possible gPhone. For example the US Patent Application number US20070066364, titled ‘Customized Data Retrieval Applications for Mobile Devices Providing Interpretation of Markup Language Data’ or US Patent number 6,982,945, titled ‘Baseband Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum Transceiver’.

Together, the patents seem to shed light on the first steps of ensuring a revolutionary device: making sure others can’t copy or reinvent your technology. While the patents themselves move from the outer body, to the search function and ultimately to the methods by which data (or voice) can be sent across the air waves, what emerges is the building blocks of mobile device.

Yet Google doesn’t want to commit to doing anything with them. When Google personnel were asked about the gPhone with respect to the patents, they replied with a “We file patent applications on a variety of ideas that our employees come up with. Some of those ideas later mature into real products or services; some don’t. Prospective product announcements should not necessarily be inferred from our patent applications.” However, instead of attributing this to anyone, the company chose to simply say that the ‘Google spokesperson’, was responsible for this pearl of wisdom.

Putting the pieces of the puzzle of the gPhone may just turn out to be harder that one thought. Or alternately, the pieces are there, but the grandmaster doesn’t want the endgame picture to emerge, just yet. While speculations run rife, there is just one thing do to, wait for the new generation of mobile telephony to blow you away.