Google Latest Project In Testing: “Next-Gen Personal Communication Device”

It’s seems that Google is being very busy with the number of projects they’re working on. The first to be revealed was a home entertainment device earlier this week (later revealed to be a music streaming service) and also their attempts to introduce a ‘fibre residential gateway‘ as part of its 1Gbps Google Fiber project.

Now another application has been submitted to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to test out a “next generation personal communication device that requires testing outside the laboratory environment.”

Like the home entertainment device, this communication device is also a prototype but will be making use of WiFi and Bluetooth radio. Since it is a communication device, Google is testing it out in a number of different locations simultaneously including Los Angeles, Cambridge in Massachusetts, New York and Mountain View in California. Exactly 102 different units are being tested in these locations.

The most likely option is that Google is preparing a massive assault of the hardware market by targeting areas that haven’t been dominated by Apple or Amazon. Home entertainment systems are areas that these companies haven’t touched upon so gaining a foothold in this market could give Google an extra dimension: taking over the market wouldn’t harm them and could also bring the company closer to the level of earnings that Apple boasts.

Another possibility that this project is connected to the fibre residential gateway is possible, perhaps introducing a telecommunications system to challenge the telecom industry although you could argue that in a sense, Android already fulfils this purpose since mobile communications has for the most part replaced landline phones. The other possibility is that Google’s three projects are being designed to complement each other when they’re released but this is unlikely as Google could (and if it’s true, should) have gone down the route of combining this and the home entertainment device.

You’d have to imagine that there’s much more to this project than the filling lets on, but whether that is the case or not, it’ll be another few months before further details are revealed or leaked out to the public.