[p2p-research] about those old android phones for 3rd world kids...

[Matt Boggs]

http://gizmodo.com/5415169/leak-the-google-phone-is-a-certainty

And it will be 'FREE':

I've watched Google since they were founded. in that time I have noted 3
things Google does.
1. They never plan for the short term. They decide what they want to make
happen 10 years from now and then proceed to plan backwards from that. They
plan ahead. ICANN is now international and URLs will be in every language.
Google can already translate web pages, URLs will be no different. They make
mistakes, but they still tend to be years ahead.
2. They do not charge their users. EVER. They are not a company that makes
money off the public. They are a company that earns money off of businesses.
Every program, every app, every service is free to the user.
3. They kill cash cows. Note that for the last several years they have been
making their own up to date maps. Now, they own the most accurate road maps
in the world. They released a GPS navigator for free. Time and time again,
Google creates a product that undercuts, and eventually crushes competitors.
because it's free. It might take several years, but they almost always end
up being the dominant product.
This article makes a very logical point. The Google Phone may very well be
absolutely free to users, and charge businesses for in store traffic
directed to them by their new Navigator. You use the Google phone to go
someplace, that place pays Google. The phone and service fees are covered by
that revenue and the end user pays nothing, just like every other product
from Google.
It doesn't have to compete with high end phones, or be the "best". Just
being free will make it a massive success.
And over the course of the next few years, it will get better, more
sophisticated, and more powerful.
And it end up wiping out the Mobile Carriers, Phone makers, and even the
iPhone.
Because what Google may be designing isn't a phone at all.
People have been talking about how Phones and Computers and various other
entertainment devices are becoming more integrated. You have Gameboys, PSPs,
IPods, IPhones, etc.
But what none of these things do is connect directly to your computer in the
sense that they are pretty much the exact same thing in different sizes.
Between ChromeOS and Android, a Google Phone could be your desktop PC, only
smaller. Free connection to an always available internet, able to connect
remotely to your personal data on your home system as well as freely
accessing the cloud, able to do everything your PC can and running the same
apps. It could possibly even share processor resources with your home system
using distributed processing.
And all those "Competitors" will have ceased to have a cash cow, and unless
they shift to a similar Business model (years behind Google) they will cease
to exist.