The Road To Google's First "iPhone"

The rumors are ripe – Google is tipped to be designing their own iPhone competitor within the next year. Today we're going to explore how we got to this point and, perhaps more importantly, why Google won't actually release this non-Nexus device. Could it be that the company known for their wildly popular open-source mobile operating system would destroy everything they've worked for just to battle Apple directly? Hypothetically yes. Realistically, no.

If Google had a device in the works right this minute that'd be released within the next year, made to go to war with the iPhone directly, here's what it'd look like: simple. Google would play up their ability to upgrade the software on the device as quick as Apple, or quicker, and the fact that they're working with universal connectivity with technologies like USB-C and Bluetooth, connecting in ways that Apple doesn't.

ALSO SEE: Why Google's Tango is a total game-changer

Now that Google's Android has taken over the world, they'd say, here's Google's own device, as Google intended it. Not made for developers, like the Nexus smartphone line, but for everybody.

This device would be one of two. The simpler device would have a display that's slightly sharper than the iPhone 6s, and a camera with a megapixel count slightly higher than the iPhone 6s. It might even have the latest Sony IMX image sensor to potentially out-do the iPhone 6s' camera.

Then there'd be a second device, a very special device.

This would be the Google Phone Pro. I don't know what they'd actually call it. It'd function and be presented much like the iPad Pro, bringing some heat to the smartphone world with Daydream and Tango.

The Pro Android device made by Google for the masses would be able to work with virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality with ease, and it'd be able to map your entire world with Tango, too.

It'd have the highest-powered Qualcomm-designed processor to run your apps and its own unique features. It would be Qualcomm designed, but it'd have a big fat Google stamp on it so you know Google worked with Qualcomm to make it extra special.

This Android device would be large and unique and capable of connecting to all major carriers around the world. It'd cost the same as the iPhone, but it'd have specs that are all just a tiny bit better.

But Google wont do this.

That'd be completely nuts.

If for NO OTHER REASON than what we've learned from Microsoft. Once they started to make plain their preference for Nokia in making Windows Phone devices, the little bit of market share they had began to slip away, and manufacturers of all sorts decided to get out as quick as possible.

SEE THIS: Road to the next Nexus

Once Microsoft acquired Nokia's smartphone business, it was all over.

Google won't show preference to their own store. They have too much to lose, and not nearly enough to gain. No reason to go to war with a company that they develop apps for. No need to try – suddenly – to become a hardware company when they've invested so much in trying to dominate the mobile software industry.

So don't worry, Lenovo. You're still headed for something great with your first-to-market Tango phone. We're waiting on pins and needles!