• TheStreet.com, Tuesday, October 20, 2009 2:36 PM

Google is about to enter the smartphone market with an Android phone of its own. The search giant is working with a smartphone manufacturer to have a Google-branded phone available this year through retailers and not through telcos, Northeast Securities analyst Ashok Kumar tells TheStreet.com. The move would fulfill Google's pledge to bring a new generation of open-standard mobile Internet devices to consumers.

By bypassing the carriers, who keep tight controls over the features and applications that are allowed on phones, it looks like Google will offer a device that lets users determine the functions. Both the Chrome netbook and the Android phone will use Qualcomm chips, with the netbook running on Qualcomm's Snapdragon platform, says Kumar, who has discussed the plan with original design manufacturers working with Google.

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