What's the Google phone going to be? Hardware or software?

We've been hearing about the so far vaporware Google phone for a very long time and rumors have heated up recently that the search giant is preparing to bring it out soon.  The hazy descriptions of the "gPhone" have not shed any real light on what such a phone Google might produce.  One thing is certain, it will surely leverage the entire software suite that Google has today, and in a high-speed way.

The International Herald Tribune has an article that looks at what Google might produce in such a phone, and reaches an interesting conclusion.  It's not about the hardware rather the software that will distinguish such an effort by Google.  The author gives a spot-on analysis that shows us how the gPhone will not come close to the impact of Apple's iPhone so the hardware is not going to be the big buzz generator.  Rather, the software, which many believe will be a new open-source OS is where Google is going to try to make their mark.  I don't know how Google may approach this but after reading this analysis I question how much impact Google could make with a gPhone.