that's nothing more than an mda vario with an i-phone face. rather disappointing. i wouldn't buy a mobile that is using an unproven platform. u cannot rely on 0900 help lines for debugging...ridiculous.

paul, london, uk

Google have taken the concept of the iPhone and slapped their logo on it in the name of the future of advertising.

They have yet again displayed their lack of class and inability to innovate.

Not that I'm a big fan of Apple as I own a Nokia N95 8GB which wipes the floor with anything around.

Andrew Corr, Burton On Trent, UK

Joel West - Android will be open sourced as soon as the first release is finished later this year. Every part of it will be open source, apart from some of the proprietary Google APIs to Google services, which may remain closed.

Alex Kerr, London, UK

He is a Steve Jobs "look a bit a like," but without his charm.
A classic example, they let the engineer do the presentation, because of hirakial considerations.
A slick presentation video would have done wonders, instead of this boring man.

MIRS, Bangkok, Thailand

i'm sure he is a great engineer, but the guy doing the presentation has the most boring voice in the world

christopher, manama, bahrain

"Ads By Google" is advertising competitor phones at the bottom of this story! :)

Corrie, indianpolis, US

Now that I think about it, I love it!!! Viva la google!!!

DK, la, DK, la, usa

u probably can to talk to the device
but did they say if you could TALK on it like a phone like to another nerd?

rp, austin, usa

Actually, Android is not open source. It's based on open source from others, including Apple's webkit open source browser lib. Android is being developed by a closed group under a model we open source researchers call "gated source". It might be open source someday, but not yet.

Joel West, San Jose, Calif., USA

Apple have released a Software Development Kit (SDK) that will allow applications to work together with the iPhone. This means that whilst Apple closes the modification of the innards of iPhone it allows interested parties to add functionality to the iPhone over and above that supplied by Apple.

VdS, London, UK

the trouble wit this Google project is that they are going to rely on the mediocre copycat hardware manufacturers who are destined to be 1 year behind Apple for a long time. Apples g3 /enterprise/sdk/global launch is going to change the whole game ... Apple is already very busy with the next phase.

Brett schlesinger, london, uk

Wow, a phone that doesn't exist with a compass and pac man game on it-..yawn. I suggest they spend a few hundred dollars and hire some real graphics people because their site looks like a student project with their hokey artwork scribbles. Move along, nothing to see here.

DK, la, usa

Are you kidding me Colin? Apple is based on FreeBSD which IS open source. The reason Apple has hardly any viruses is partly due to the UNIX security model as compared to the no-security model of Windows. Microsoft has always been closed.

Joe, Saint Louis, MO, USA

...open source software, which is the reason why PC's have so many viriuses...

False. Virii are prevalent on Window platform because it is the dominant desktop platform. Virii a spawned from popularity, profit and boredom and have zero to do with open source - Linux is 100% OSS, but no epidemic...

skelly, Santa Cruz, California, USA

Yes sorry - Apple has not been subject to viruses because they were too small to be a target. Everyone hated Microsoft so it was the primary victim of viruses. Unix/Linux has always been a popular hacking victim also, because you could install threaded applications that many people would not notice.

Charlie, Roanoke, USA

"Microsoft had open source software, which is the reason why PC's have so many viriuses". WRONG.

Thomas, Omaha, USA

Who, honestly, doesn't know the word 'orientate' and the fact it has nothing to do with the Orient?

Phil, London, UK

Orientate is a widely accepted synonym of "orient", found in any half-decent dictionary.

John Smith, Nagasawa,

Keith from Denver: I find it highly unlikely that people commenting on viruses and operating systems will be either ignorant or unwashed, actually.

Samantha Brenchley, London,

Orientate? Thats great if everywhere you travelis due east of your current position. :)

Erik, Hoffman Estates, USA

Orientate?

John, Austin, USA

Colin from Nottingham,
Your statement is so completely ignorant, it is astounding. Both Microsoft/Apple are closed and proprietary source. The Linux and Unix OSes are open source and have probably less than 50 known viruses. MS virus problem is due to its 90%+ market share not how open its code is.

Eric, Sacramento,

This is a much better article than the one about Microsoft touch screens. It does not matter what the ill-informed, unwashed masses think about open source because it is secure and it does attract the very top talent.

Keith Thomas, Denver, United States

Microsoft = open sourced software? Colin, what exactly have you been smoking? That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard ... Mac OS X is based on UNIX, which is the epitome of open source. Please get your facts strait before posting a comment like that in the future.

Bryan, Seattle,

"Microsoft had open source software, which is the reason why PC's have so many viruses." Not true. Microsoft is the anti-open source. They have so many viruses because their closed source software has so many security flaws. Open source software actually has been shown to have fewer security flaws.

Steve, Denver, USA

Colin in Notttingham - You statement is patently false. Microsoft is fully proprietary software. Their poor security model, open ports for unnecessary services, dumb down design, slow to patch security bugs, etc. are the reasons, among others, that their software is an easy target for malware.

Dan, Macon, USA

Colin from Nottingham: Microsoft does not have open source software. The various Linuxes are open source, and have never had virus problems. Virus writers attack whoever is popular, to ensure widespread distribution.

Kasira, Houston,

The downside to open sourcing is the influx of virus creation. Microsoft had open source software, which is the reason why PC's have so many viriuses. Apple on the other hand had closed software which is why it hardly has any viruses.

Colin, Notttingham,

meh..looks like a cheap iPhone copy. Why did Google even make this? Was there any demand for yet another mobile phone OS? I smell 90's-style dot com waste of resources on R&D. Bad habits die hard, I guess.

Pat O, Bloomington, USA

If the phone is wifi enabled why is it so difficult to allow the phone to function as a webcam for video conferencing via a program such as Skpe?

Jesse, Dallas, US

There is nothing all that special about this phone. It merely has the benefit of having the Google name attached to it. That fact alone will make it a best-seller on par with Apple's phone.

David, Boerne, USA

Just to clarify that Android being open source means anyone can take the operating system, modify it, implement it on new phones etc. all for free, not just develop software for it. iPhone OS is closed source, meaning it is iPhone only, and development possibilities are more restricted than Android.

Alex Kerr, London, UK