Google will not be building handsets

Although the rumors have been flying for quite some time, a Google executive insists that it will not be getting into the hardware business to manufacturing handsets for Android phones.

As recently as last week, there were reports that Google would soon begin manufacturing handsets for Android-powered smartphones. Such rumors have been surfacing sporadically since Google announced their cell phone operating system a couple of years ago. Now, none other than Google’s head of Android development, Andy Rubin, has said very clearly that his company is not looking to get into the hardware business, saying essentially that it would be a bad idea to “compete with its [own] customers” by producing smartphone hardware.

Rubin, whose official title at Google is vice president of engineering for Android, says that his company has worked with handset manufacturers to develop designs that would take maximum advantage of the Android operating system, but that does not mean they want to get into the hardware business. Rubin said “We’re not making hardware. We’re enabling other people to build hardware.”

Ruben even told a story on on his own engineers, according to a CNET article. They were consulting with the manufacturer of the G1 Android phone, one of the first of the breed. The Google engineers pushed for the hinged five-row keyboard that eventually wound up on that device. That particular feature wound up not being popular with users, and Rubin joked that perhaps that was a sign that Google should not be involved on the hardware side of the business.

Although it is sometimes difficult to define exactly what businesses Google is in, they have certainly not done much in the way of hardware in the past. Extrapolating from Rubin’s remarks about handset manufacturing, it seems unlikely that the company’s business model will change any time soon. Google would appear to be happy to leave the hardware to others while they continue to try to corner the market on everything else in the technical arena.

• 

• Google Android handsets will work with Verizon Wireless
• Report: Android handsets now outselling Apple’s iPhone
• The origin of Google’s Android
• HTC focuses on fewer Android handsets
• Big plans for Google Nexus smartphone