UPDATE: Google has responded to the speculation. See: Google Phone: Google Confirms “Dogfooding” of New Phone
Google staffers have received a shiny new unlocked Android 2.1 phone, according to Twitter reports. That's almost all we know.
Descriptions make it sound like the HTC Passion (pictured), which is scheduled for an early 2010 launch. The question is, does that really count as the Google Phone? After all, wasn't the G1 supposed to be that much-heralded Google flagship device according to the rumor mill?
Is it Google branded? We don't know yet. A few Tweets refer to it as the Google Phone, but photos have yet to emerge. It might be...also might not.
Did Google design it and hand it off to a manufacturer, much like Foxconn builds the iPhone based on Apple's designs? Definitely not: it appears to be an HTC handset (possibly the HTC Passion).
While we all want to believe in the mystical Google Phone - and another iPhone competitor to increase innovation - what's shaping up here is little more than a new HTC handset running Android 2.1: it's yet again Google's software on someone else's hardware.