Google announced it’s time to make cell phones and chew bubble gum! And it’s all out of gum.

Months of speculation has finally been put to rest. Yes, Google is making a phone – and it hopes you have one in less than a year.

The Godzilla of Internet search and advertising has turned its atomic-breath weapon on Apple’s iPhone and Microsoft PIM.

Google showed a prototype to hardware and network vendors for a cell phone it would like to take to market in less than a year. The goal is to provide users with free telephone services by doing what Google does best, embedding ads.

On the heels of Apple’s iPhone release, Google has a tough road ahead.

It wants its upcoming Gphone to have a sophisticated Internet browser. iPhone’s intuitive, full-scale browser system will be a tough act to follow.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Google wants its phone to offer a superior mobile Web experience than current offerings.

Ouch! Apple, that sounds like Google is gunning for you.

But Microsoft isn’t safe from the Gthreat either. The purpose of the Google phone is to take its handy Internet applications mobile.

Much of its development is taking place in Boston where Google is busy drafting specifications for cell phone software that will run all of its mobile apps. With a plan to include mobile updating for Gmail, task-lists and a scheduler, it sounds like Google is hitting Microsoft Outlook and Active Sync below the belt.

It’ll be interesting to see how Google tackles the question of mobile synchronization.

Google Hardware?

Who will make the Google Phone? That question has yet to be answered.

“We’re partnering with carriers, manufacturers and content providers around the world to bring Google search and Google applications to mobile users everywhere,” Google spokesman Michael Kirkland said in an e-mail statement.

According to reports, Google has already dropped millions of dollars into the project, so it could be the hardware will be self-made. But if Google decides not to get into the hardware manufacturing business, one likely suspect to crank out the Gphone is LG.

LG Electronics of South Korea is a long-time Google collaborator. The two have joined forces to present mobile Google apps in LG mobile phones. LG handsets will soon offer customers access to YouTube, Google Maps, Gmail and even Blogger Mobile, for those moments you just have to post while sitting in a drive-through.

Will a Google phone be able to top the slick interface of iPhone? Will Google mobile apps ever achieve the scalability and market acceptance of Outlook?

I’ve got a front-row seat for this clash of titans and plenty of bubble gum!