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With rumours of a Google designed mobile phone in the works we speculate on the things it needs to make it a success.

As the rumours of Google’s imminent release of the Google mobile phone escalate, Onecompare have compiled a top ten list of features we think the Google phone should incorporate into their eagerly awaited handset in order to make it a hit.

• 3G - The Google phone would preferably be 3G, learning from the mistakes of the iPhone which will need to be re-engineered to work in the UK at good download speeds.
• Really high speed mobile internet - Preferably we would like HSDPA for faster internet browsing in preparation for the UK’s forthcoming HSDPA network upgrades.
• Liberal borrowing from the iPhone interface - iPhone styled design giving the Google phone a large touch screen in a similar way to the LG Prada would be of benefit for viewing and browsing the internet, along with eliminating the need for a fiddly stylus. 
• Don’t forget the standard features! - The iPhone’s announced 2 mega pixel camera has been received as somewhat of a let down. Google can’t forget about the standard features that consumers have come to expect so we would like to see a camera with no less than 3 mega pixels. 
• Don’t forget the standard features part 2! - On that note, another feature customers have come to expect is a good MP3 player preferably with Bluetooth wireless headphone connectivity.
• Cheap calls with Voice over IP - By adding a good Voice over IP (VoIP) application users would benefit from cheaper international calls, this is a something that consumers are showing interest in using on their mobile phone so it would be a huge benefit to the Googlephone. They could perhaps even start their own VoIP system to rival Skype, however they are likely to see opposition from the mobile phone networks should they introduce VoIP as they will be unhappy about the possibility of VoIP to cut into the revenue they receive from calls.
• Photo blogging on the move - A facility to upload your camera phone pictures directly to Google owned Blogger to speed up the ability of customers to blog on the move.
• Special mobile versions of popular Google sites - No matter how big the screen is it won’t offer as good a web browsing experience as a computer so modified versions of popular Google properties such as GMail, Blogger and YouTube that display in a way that makes it easier to navigate and add to your mail, blog and videos on your mobile phone.
• Take advantage of high capacity expandable memory cards - It needs to be able to take new high capacity external memory cards (eg. 4GB cards) to be able to handle large downloads directly from the internet. Hard drives in mobile phones have traditionally operated fairly slowly, been reasonably unreliable and made the phone quite large and cumbersome so with the capacity of external memory cards shooting up recently, the obvious answer is to allow these high capacity cards to make up the majority of the storage space.
• Keep the price low, but not at the expense of the features - A low price would appeal to everyone, with the cost of the iPhone coming in for a lot of criticism since it was announced, but we wouldn’t like to see the features and design hindered just for the sake of a lower the price tag.

Rumours have also been heard down the grapevine that Google may stop other networks from using Google on their handsets; therefore the Google Phone would be the only mobile phone that you could access Google on.

Many are saying that the Google phone would merely be to show how a mobile phone can be used to support advertising, giving users nothing new in features and design but simply plastering their brand name on a standard mobile phone.  The Googlephone (if it is ever released!) is speculated to be in stores in quarter 4 this year. Keep checking our news section for updates and don’t forget Onecompare is running a competition to win the most eagerly anticipated confirmed mobile phone of the year in our iPhone contest!