Will Google take on the iPhone?

The news this morning that Apple sold 1 million 3G iPhones over the weekend has fanned the flames of a Google rival hitting the market in the near future.Last November, Google unveiled an operating system called Android that is designed to power a new generation of mobile phones. Powered by Linux and available for free, Android is designed kickstart an entirely new kind of innovation in mobile phone applications. Google has even set up an Android developer challenge offering a total of $10 million in prize money to those who come up with the best new apps for the Android system.Being free, any handset maker can produce a phone that is powered by Android.The big question, however, is whether Google will enter the market with a design of its own, perhaps to set the bar for other manufacturers by showing off all the features of the software.According to Michael Arrington over at TechCrunch, the answer is a tentative yes. Arrington says he has a source claiming that a San Francisco-based design consultancy called the Ammunition Design Group, may be collaborating with Google to create an Android-based, Google-branded "Gphone".On the other hand, the Silicon Alley Insider is arguing that Google should not make a Gphone, because the company makes its money from advertising rather than gadget sales. So the best thing it can do is encourage people to use the mobile web, which is a job that Android is already doing simply by being free and easily available.We almost certainly won't know for sure until Google decides to lay its cards on the table.But the prospect of selling a million units of anything over the course of a weekend must be tempting for any company. If Google hasn't yet decided to launch its own phone, those kind of figures may help to settle the matter.Justin Mullins, New Scientist consultant