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Google boss in Spain says 'Sí' to mobile phone
But will engineers' handiwork ever become product?

By Jo Best

Published: Monday 19 March 2007

Could the fabled Google mobile phone be a reality? The search giant's head in Spain has said engineers are indeed working on a phone.

Isabel Aguilera, Google's managing director for Portugal and Spain, told Spanish news site notacias.com: "We've dedicated part of our engineers' time to looking into a mobile phone that can access data."

Aguilera told the site the engineers are working on the mobile as part of their time dedicated to non-core projects - and that the prospect of an internet-focused mobile "has been investigated".

Aguilera did not, however, reveal if the search giant intended to commercialise an own-brand mobile phone. Mobile watchers recently told silicon.com they had their doubts Google would move into hardware.

Nevertheless, the buzz on the subject keeps building, fuelled by several sources, including one venture capitalist who claims to have been told the device will be BlackBerry-like in nature, and the appearance of a job vacancy for a wireless engineer to work on experimental projects at Google.