My take on this is that it's utterly doomed to failure like every similar effort to date - despite Google throwing their weight behind it. I think it's evidence that Google doesn't take this particularly seriously (or that they're utterly unwilling to become a "hardware company"). If they really wanted to make a gPhone they would. They're not, so clearly they don't. I'm sure that when and if products based on the platform make it to market they will have some traction from the Google association, but I'm predicting that this will neither be an iPhone killer nor something that changes the way that wireless carriers do business (e.g. by creating advertising-supported wireless phone service).