Has Google decided that they have to go up against the iPhone with their own device? TechCrunch says that's a yes:

We told you the Google phone was confirmed. And now some Googler’s seem to be confirming it, too. There is a lot of chatter on Twitter about Google employees with HTC-built unlocked Google Phones running Android 2.1. And the devices look to be coming out in January.

For all of the pundit blather about how Android will eventually win on "open" grounds, Apple has one huge advantage with the iPhone, and it's the same one that game consoles have over PCs: a known deployment system. With the fully open device market, an application developer has many unknowns: touch screen, no touch. Keyboard, or virtual keyboard. How much memory? What size screen with what capabilities? And so on. Apple app developers don't really have that problem (yes, there are hardware generations). If Google ships a branded device, they can get to the same place.

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