Google Phone Announcement Today

Is it a phone, is it a software? Rumor mills have been running over-time, whipping up plausible answers to this million dollar question.

And today is supposedly d-day when Google will lift the shroud of secrecy enveloping its Google Phone project.

Google last cleared the air when it said that the Google Phone is not going to be a phone to compete with the likes of Apple Computer's iPhone; rather a software to rival Microsoft.

The latest story is that the Google Phone will be made by a carrier (s) who will bring to market a mobile device with the Google operating system (OS) on it. The Google Phone will likely be available by mid next year. And US-based Verizon Wireless is tipped to be the chosen carrier for launching the device powered by Google's OS.

Turns out, unlike Apple or Microsoft, Google's approach is to make an open platform for the handset, which can take to third party applications running on it. Meaning, handset makers will be first given the Google software, and subsequently, developers will design applications for the Google Phone.

While some sort of official announcement is expected today, Google's Director of Mobile Platforms, and one of Google Phone's primary architects, Andy Rubin, is said to be busy overseeing dozens of software engineers working 'at the Google Phone' at the company's sprawling Silicon Valley campus.

All said, in an age where cell phones are increasingly turning into mobile PCs, Google's software (standard) might just give it the kind of edge (in the smart phones market) which say a Microsoft enjoys courtesy its Windows OS.