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Exactly like a phone company - except 10x cheaper because they don't have to pay for all that central billing and support services

It's more a threat to Apple.

What google are proposing is to sell a web browser only appliance - for a limited number of users who only use their windows laptop to run ie this is great, they no longer have to worry about viruses or steal ms-office to write a simple letter.

Google can have many more apps for this than apple, because every website is n 'app', developers can write apps simply using javascript/html - there is no need to buy a mac, learn objective C and join apples dev program and learn what secret signs you need to know to get your app approved.

Google don't need to approve the app in the same way that they don't need to approve your website.

To Microsoft, who make their money from business customers running SQLServer and Windows server licenses, this is about as relevent as Nokia shipping a new edition of symbian.

The US also allows implementation patents so you can take any existing patent and add "using a computer" to the end.

For instance, placing a small dot to mark the end of a sentance - on a computer, is a new patent.

If somebody isn't buying your product because it doesn't do X because of something company Y supplies

- it's YOUR problem.

Some of us do - we had a Psion ten years ago!

So a machine the size and cost of a laptop but more limited in functionality than a phone while still requiring an always on network connection?

Yep - there's an Apple + MS destroyer right there!

You can't see the code inside Google's network so even though the client app is open you have no more proof that all your calls aren't being streamed to Langley or Beijing than you do with skype.

An you can't have pay for service like calls to 'real' phones because if the billing was done in the client you could simply remove it, forcing all the billing to be done at their servers - which makes it much more expensive.

Sure, can you sign my NDA before we discuss it?

We used to do that as a standard procedure. Before a meeting with a client we would write a bogus patent listing everything we could think of about the subject. Then if there was an arguement about an NDA we could prove we were already working on the idea. You can file a PCT application for almost nothing (used to be $20) and never bother taking it to a full patent - cheaper than having a lawyer minute it.