GOOG is not making phones or buying newspapers

Google's Andy Rubin, head of the company's Android development, would like to clear something up: Google is not in the phone-making business.

Google: We're not making Android hardware

On October 20 I wrote: There is no Google phone

I didn't need to call up Google to ask, I knew there was no Google phone because I have been reporting on the company since its very beginnings and know and have met their founders and most of their top executives.

Every company has a core philosophy and culture and once you understand it it helps to guide your reporting.

The Street.com originated a story that Google is working on a phone. It clearly does not understand the company.

Google is not building an Android phone, nor will it buy a newspaper, like some have said it should buy the New York Times. Google doesn't need to be in the phone business or in the newspaper business -- it can benefit from other companies being in those businesses.

People think that companies can jump from one business into another. Companies are like trains on a track -- once they are on one track it is very difficult to shunt them onto another track -- even if it is an adjacent track. Even if it makes good business sense (which in both these Google examples does not make good business sense.)