Is google building its own wireless device?

From http://blogs.business2.com/apple/2007/03/is_google_makin.html

Is Google Making Its Own Mobile Device?

That's the speculation at Macworld UK this morning based on a Google (GOOG) job posting for an analog engineer/designer whose qualifications include programming, circuit modeling, power supply design and "ham radio license a plus."

"To improve accessibility," the posting says, "Google is experimenting with a few wireless communications systems including some completely novel concepts. We are building a small team of top-notch Logic Designers and Analog Designers aimed at nothing less than making the entire world's information accessible from anywhere for free. Are you in?" (link)

Macworld quotes Phil Taylor, senior analyst with Strategy Analytics. "In the wake of Apple and some other big-name brands moving into the handset business, why not Google?" said Taylor. (full text here)

The trick for Google and its new analog engineer would be to make something that stands out in a crowded market where the bar has just been raised dauntingly high by Apple's (AAPL) iPhone.

Palm (PALM), meanwhile, has hired Paul Mercer, a top Silicon Valley designer, to work on its own answer to the iPhone, according to John Markoff in today's NY Times (link, sub required). Mercer was the lead designer of Version 7 of the Macintosh finder and helped Samsung design the Z5, one of South Korea's best selling MP3 players.