Google to foray into smartphone space with “GooglePhone” launch

Google is expected to step into the mobile arena later in the day today with launch own Nexus One smartphone, that will take on Apple's heavyweight iPhone handsets.

Google has timed the launch in a week when the technology world would be tuned in to a premier consumer electronics show that officially begins on Thursday in Las Vegas.

According to analysts the perception among people seems to be that the phone is a Google-supplied phone. They add that it does not seem to make any sense and say the phone is more a vehicle for Android software. Google has dubbed the launch at its Mountain View, California, headquarters as an ''Android press event.''

They say a true Google phone would be one shipped by the internet firm, and it was more likely that new generation Android software and applications are being built into hardware sold by the manufacturer.

Meanwhile according to the buzz on the internet which includes some reports by people who claim to have toyed with the touch-screen smartphones, the Nexus one was a worthy rival for the iPhone, while others say that Google's software magic was not in evidence in the hardware.

Google's Android mobile operating system, which has been running on a number of phones including T-Mobile's G1 since October 2008 and more recently with the Motorola's Droid has already given the internet advertising giant a firm foothold in the mobile market.