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Updated, see last paragraph: For a long time there were quite a few rumors about Google making a Gphone, its own hardware device. In the end it came out with Android, a software platform that it is promoting in partnership with 50 odd companies. The platform is still under development, so to speak, as Mountain View-based search company works with partners to iron out the kinks. As we reported earlier, it has hit some speed bumps.

Android, however, shifted attention away from the possibility of Google making its own hardware. Looks like that plan to make Google-branded phone hasn’t been dropped entirely, according to The Hollywood Reporter. One of their reporters is attending Allen & Company’s Sun Valley Retreat for media barons and he attended an impromptu press conference held by Google co-founders Larry Page & Sergey Brin along with CEO Eric Schmidt.

The trio of Google execs also used the opportunity to talk about the inroads the company is making with its own branded mobile phone as a replacement for the iPhone, as well as the Chinese market and how they’re treated there — and even Google’s inhouse educational programs and the salaries and potential of teachers.

The report, I admit is awkwardly worded but I wonder if any of the other reporters actually picked up more details from the tattling trio. It is not clear from the report if all the talk is about Android or if they actually mean a GPhone.The Google-branded handset is a bit like the Abdominal Abominable Snowman - much talked about but rarely seen. I emailed the press hotline and will wait for some clarifications.

Update #1: Michael Arrington says that San Francisco-based The Ammunition Group might be designing the new phone.

Update#2: Peter Kafka checked with some reporters in attendance and found out that there was no specific talk of a handset.

larry: we have android phones obvioulsy. I know that there’s a hypothetical google phone
eric: they’ll call it the google phone no matter what you call it. we’re just going to have to deal with this

Google, still hasn’t replied to our request - it is the weekend after all. 

Photo courtesy of our mates at Gizmodo via Googlified.

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Mobilize — Mobile Web Today and Tomorrow

Mippin (formerly Refresh Mobile), whose browser-based site presents content specially designed for mobile consumption, says it has named a new CEO and reached a milestone of 500,000 users. But I question its ability to survive.

The London-based startup’s service also learns what users like and recommends stories based on their previous interests. I call it a mobile portal analogous to Yahoo, MSN, Netvibes or PageFlakes, but Judy Gibbons, the new CEO, has a different definition. She says it’s a mobile media services company, in that it optimizes PC content for consumption on a mobile device. “We believe there is only one Internet - there is not a separate mobile one,” Gibbons told me via email. “But mobile presents different challenges and opportunities and there is real user value to having all this content in one place in the same consistent format with a great fast user experience.”

Whatever you call it, Mippin needs to gain wide adoption in a crowded area to support its advertising-based revenue model. The market includes efforts by Yahoo, Microsoft and Google, and according to ad network AdMob — which does business with Mippin — the number of mobile portals is steadily rising (see graph). Obviously the mobile world cannot support 500 varying portals. Even in the PC web world, portals have problems.

Despite impressive growth from its October 2007 launch, averaging 110 page views per user and advertising click-through rates of 3 percent and 15 percent for contextual ads, (way better than the .5 percent rates on other mobile sites), I’m not sure Mippin will deliver the audience advertisers need given the amount of competition fighting for consumers’ eyes. It’s a nice service, but unfortunately that doesn’t always win out.