The Gphone is here, but don’t run out to join the queue just yet. Those framing their expectations in terms of the hype and wizardry of Apple’s iPhone will be disappointed. Google’s mobile ambitions are all about software, not hardware. The phone, made by Taiwan’s HTC and to be sold by T-Mobile in the US, certainly looks a competent device but it will just be the first of what the search giant hopes will be many Gphones using its open-source Android software.

The stakes are huge. Unlike Nokia and Research In Motion, which control about 70 per cent of the smartphone operating system market, Google is not in the hardware business. Unlike Microsoft, which has about 10 per cent, it does not seek to profit from licensing. Rather, it hopes to keep doing what it has done for the past few years – dominate the search business and the advertising dollars that come with it. The problem is, as web surfing goes mobile, handset manufacturers have more control than PC-makers over how consumers access the web and want a cut of Google’s cash cow.