A colleague who knows my penchant for techno-gadgetry asked me this week about the new “Google Phone” and what I thought of it? The phone is actually T-Mobile’s new G1 model, with Google’s new phone software, and it designed to compete with that mildly successful phone from Apple called the…um…what was it again?

Oh yes, the iPhone.

So I went to the mall this weekend to see the G1 for myself and to compare it to the iPhone. My headline review of the G1 is that it is an impressive first effort and offers a lot of breakthrough new features. Unfortunately, it is hampered by a somewhat clunky design and an awful keyboard set-up.
(And the fact that it is on the T-Mobile network doesn’t help, because it isn’t quite as predominant as the other big three carriers of Verizon, AT&T and Sprint.)

In other words, while not bad–The G1 is not an iPhone killer.

Despite the pundits who said that it would never match the firestorm of success that the Mac computer maker had with its now ubiquitous iPod music players, the iPhone has been what business analysts like to call “a game changer.” And it got me to thinking about what the choice of a cell phone says about its owner.

My colleague who was asking about the Google phone represents the question best. He currently has a basic cell phone of a few years vintage. It is a “flip” styled phone from one of the names nobody can remember, be it Samsung, LG, or Motorola. It’s not that stylish, a bit chunky by today’s ultra slim and sleek standards and it doesn’t do much other than make calls or snap a fuzzy low resolution picture. No music playing, no internet access, and it certainly doesn’t stand up to the must-have moniker of a “smartphone”.

One wonders if we have all been suckered in on feeling that we just aren’t smart enough, if we don’t have a smartphone?

A wireless phone company will give you a pretty decent phone for free these days, just for signing up for the onerous, but industry standard two year contract. Many of these free phones are good looking and amazingly state of the art, with Bluetooth connectivity (for a wireless headset), Music playing capacity and even access to the “watered down Internet” that all cell phone providers have to get you interested in signing up to pay some extra each month for a “data plan”.

So does it really come down to the style question? Does it matter what your cell phone looks like?

A few years back when Motorola unleashed its “game changer” cell phone, the Razr–style became the whole reason to choose a cell phone. The fact that a Razr was so damn thin and styled like a thing that James Bond would carry while working on “His Majesty’s Secret Service”, made everyone want it. A few pictures of celebrities carrying them and eventually all of the major cell phone carriers (Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile) had a Razr model in their lineup. I think it was the first model of a phone to achieve that feat. A sure sign of a hot cell phone.

Current lineups of cellphones are impressive. Duck into any cell phone company store or go on their websites and you will find an amazing selection of cell phones that do almost anything you could want to do–with a phone.

Except I would suggest that more and more, selection of a cell phone has almost nothing to do with what a phone really does. You know, that whole making a phone call thing?

Cell phones now are about text messaging, internet surfing, picture taking and status making.

I have an Apple iPhone. (You can see what I am doing with it right here.) I realized while writing this, that I don’t actually make that many calls with it. Now that is in part because I must be so “important” that I have to carry two cell phones and most of the calling traffic is work related and thus on the other phone (the other one is a Blackberry Curve model, provided by my employer). So on the iPhone are usually my few calls from close family and friends.

Except they don’t really call so much. Text messages, E-mails and even Facebook status updates are much more likely to be the form my friends’ communications to me arrive in. So now, when my daughter–who still has her Razr from two Christmases ago–is thinking about what new model cell phone she wants Santa to leave under the tree for her–the question really isn’t about which one might be a nicer looking or even better working cell phone.

No, the question is which one will do everything her increasingly busy social life demands. And of course, which one will impress her friends the most. Because after all, the cell phone is still the status symbol that you can put in your pocket.

Which would explain why there is an outfit called Vertu that sells cell phones that come in precious metals and with price tags that start at 5 grand (and up). But Vertu phones actually do less than the iPhone or the Google Phone. Then again, the iPhone and Google Phone don’t show up in the fashion magazines in the hands of celebrities like Madonna and Victoria Beckham.

So what do you think your cell phone says about you?