65% of Pocket-lint.co.uk readers want a Google phone

gPhone gets the thumbs-up from the large majority

17 August 2007 15:37 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott

In the most recent Pocket-lint.co.uk reader poll, we asked you if you would like a free advertising-supported Google mobile phone.

Well, it seems you do: 65% of you would be interested in a mobile from the search engine behemoth, with 35% of you not so keen.

Rumours of a Google phone have been making the rounds in the tech world for nearly a year now, since Google boss Eric Schmidt talked up the "free" phone concept.

With Google announcing its intention to bid in the forthcoming spectrum auction in the US, for a while it seemed possible that Google might become a mobile network operator too, but announcements on how the spectrum will be split up means that it now unlikely.

Recent news that Google has been taking a "gPhone" prototype round to mobile operators in the States have finally confirmed that the Google phone does indeed exist, with those same sources suggesting a 2008 launch.

So how could Google offer a "free" phone? By generating revenue through advertising. Schmidt was quoted as saying that ads on mobile phones were "twice" as profitable as web ads because they could be so much more targeted and personal.

If the 35% of Pocket-lint readers not keen on the gPhone concept are put off by the advertising then they're not alone - a recent survey from Universal McCann revealed that adverts displayed on mobile internet pages "annoyed" 61% of people.

Although, 65% of you clearly think that if those same adverts let you use a mobile phone, packed with Google-goodness, for free, it might not be such an annoyance after all...