Rumours of Google's GPhone have taken a low-tech turn, as analysts are now speculating whether the phone will either be a stripped down inexpensive device, or simply a button on other manufacturers' handsets.

The speculation comes after Google's recent purchase of Jaiku, a Finnish company that specialises in SMS applications. People such as Richard Doherty, research director at The Envisioneering Group, believe that Google are aiming to get people used to querying the search engine giant's database via SMS, either through Google's own phone, or a "GButton" on other manufacturers' handsets that would let you communicate with Google instantly.

Google clearly need people to query their databases from mobile phones in order to serve mobile advertising, which, together with location-based advertising, is set to become a market in excess of $20 billion by 2011.

The aim of the GButton would be for people to query Google for anything anytime anywhere. For example, information, shop locations, addresses, product prices, film times - you name it, Google will serve it, along with several highly targetted advertisements as well.

This in itself is a great strategy - your mobile phone literally becomes your portal to any information you need at any time of day, with Google supplying the info and earning mega-bucks for itself from advertising.

However, I can't see the concept of a GButton succeeding. Users are not going to query a search engine's database using SMS commands. Sure, you might if you're a Unix guru, but the average user has enough difficulty using their phone's cameras.

Furthermore, although Jaiku may have several SMS patents that Google want to get their hands on, it's also a mobile social network - more than that, it's now the second mobile social network that Google has bought, having previously purchased Zingku. As such, the concept of a GButton might be red-herring, as it could be the social aspect of these services that Google is seeking to leverage, rather than the SMS technology.

Fortunately, we shouldn't have too long to wait. According to Doherty, device makers already have basic GPhone designs ready to go. Once Google signs an agreement with a network operator, "GPhones could flow into the market in a matter of weeks."

[Source: Mobile-Tech-Today]