Google Inc. is building software to run services on mobile phones rather than gearing up to build its own phone, as many industry sources have speculated, one Wall Street analyst said Thursday.
Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster said in a research note to clients that Google appears to be building software for Web search on mobile phones and location-finding services to work with Apple Inc.'s iPhone and other mobile phones.
"We believe Google is working with, not against, Apple in the mobile world," Munster said.
In recent months, various reports have described how Web search leader Google could be developing a "Gphone" -- a low-cost, Internet-connected phone with a color, wide-screen design. Newspaper and blog reports in recent months have Google shopping its phone design to potential mobile phone manufacturing partners in Asia.
