Google merely confirms "dogfood" mobile lab device.
There have been persistent rumours in recent weeks that Google may be working on an own-brand Android handset, to show off the full power and customisation capabilities of its smartphone OS.
Over the weekend, the speculation reached fever pitch with reports that Google had given prototypes of the device to many of its employees.
TechCrunch rounded up some of the more excitable tweets confirming the news, including: "A friend from Google showed me the new Android 2.1 phone from HTC coming out in Jan. A sexy beast. Like an iPhone on beautifying steroids.
Then, on Saturday, Google published a somewhat guarded blog post on its official mobile blog, saying that "this holiday season, we are taking dogfooding to a new level" - dogfooding being the process of testing your own products.
"We recently came up with the concept of a mobile lab, which is a device that combines innovative hardware from a partner with software that runs on Android to experiment with new mobile features and capabilities, and we shared this device with Google employees across the globe," continued the post.
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The company declined to give more details, but the Wall Street Journal followed up with a story claiming that the phone is made by HTC but designed by Google, and called the Nexus One.
The story also claims the phone will be sold direct to consumers by Google online, next year, without being subsidised by a mobile operator.
This would be a controversial decision, risking alienating not just operators, but also existing Android handset makers.
