A few weeks ago, rumors started to surface reporting that Google is planning to produce a smartphone. Not simply an Android OS based phone with some control from Google, like the Droid phone, but a Google branded phone. Today, Gizmodo added more fuel to the speculation.

According to a trusted source who's seen it with their own eyes, the Google Phone "is a certainty."

The Google phone will not utilize Chrome OS, but will run a beefed-up version of Android, will have large LCD's, and will soon be used in prototype form on Google's campus.

The article also states:

But maybe the most intriguing bit is what someone said to our source offhandedly, that the current Android, the we all know and love, is not the "real" Android.

To me, this means that the incarnations of Android we have seen thus far, are in a sense "testing platforms" on Google's part. Their plan may have been to get the software out there on third-party handsets, work out the kinks, and then release the real deal when the software and hardware can be produced by Google.

As we have stated previously, a big advantage of the iPhone is that the software and hardware are designed by one company–Apple. This makes for a better overall user experience, and in my opinion, a better product. When the software and hardware are both designed to work together from the get go with one company in control, it stands to reason that the product is going to have better features and stability. I think this is Google's goal with a Google branded phone. In so doing, Google will compete more directly with Apple.

If this Google phone is produced, I don't picture it as being Google's only step into the hardware realm. I have pointed out that Google is continuing to expand into other markets and may even have designs for producing a Google branded netbook.