Who would buy a Google phone?

Hot news is that a Google-branded Android 2.1 phone has been seen in the wild (as actually manufactured by HTC, makers of whatever delightful plastic rubbish they have out now). Anyway, that’s all well and good for the employees rumoured to have them, but apart from them, who else would buy a Google phone?

Think about it: lots and lots of Google tools rely on the Internet, and so do quite a few Android apps. If this is the case, firstly: where in the world will support this net use, and secondly: who really wants to donate all their data to Google servers?

In the US, Europe and the “rest of the [smartphone using] world”, the data services of many networks are struggling to cope with the traffic brought on by the iPhone, Droid and so on. Now imagine a Google phone using even more of that space. Remember that Google is primarily a web services company so all their products will need to be online more.

Also, cloud computing is all well and good, but who really wants to give strangers mostly unencrypted data when the only guarantee is that the holders of the keys “won’t be evil”? And what if data is not backed up and then lost for ever (see also: Sidekick)?

This, then, is why I presume that the only people to use this Google phone will be lunatics, Google employees or users of a magical new 4G data connection. Something which, knowing Google, they will eventually roll out and become a household name in.