Google Inc. has designed a cellphone it plans to sell directly to consumers as soon as next year, according to people familiar with the matter.
The phone is called the Nexus One and is being manufactured for Google by HTC Corp., these people said. It runs Android, the operating system for mobile phones that Google developed, they added.
But unlike the more than half-dozen Android phones made by phone manufacturers today, Google designed virtually the entire software experience behind the phone.