Free phones, free service: Welcome to Google, the non-teleco

Google is a self-proclaimed advertising company. They sell ads. It is their bread and butter. Now it seems, they might be using give-a-ways like phones and phone service as a way to create a new place to serve ads.

Android was all about this plan though, we’re still not sure how it helps Google other than, perhaps, a guinea pig testing ground until it perfects the Android OS. Back years ago, Google honcho proclaimed, “phones should be free” and it rings in my head every time a new rumor spouts about a true Google phone.

Today, TheStreet.com writer Scott Moritz says:

Google is working with a smartphone manufacturer to have a Google-branded phone available this year through retailers and not through telcos, according to Northeast Securities analyst Ashok Kumar, who has talked to Google’s design partners about the plan.

Not through telecos

This will not be through telecos. It will not be a Verizon phone, nor AT&T or any other. This will be a freed phone, if you will. Now, take with a grain, make that a whole bag, of salt as analysts tend to spout rubbish from time to time, but the idea is right. The senario being painted is this: Google leases services (think MNVO) and provides users with a special Android OS phone that is unleashed. Google foots the bill for service (perhaps within reason) while serving up ads.

The big question becomes what phone and how intrusive are the ads? Would a rotating wallpaper serving ads be too far? Would hijacking the browser upon opening to an advertisers page be too much? Of course, that’s assuming this analyst actually knows what he claims to. A big “if.”

Read [TheStreet]