Samsung releases first Google phone

Samsung today unveiled the Ultra Edition 13.8, an HSDPA slider handset that incorporates Google’s mobile search and Gmail applications.

While Google’s mobile applications are now available for free download to Java-enabled phones, the portal has recently become aggressive in its mobile efforts, pursuing carrier and handset vendor deals that would push its applications suite to the forefront of the phone deck. In November, Google announced a deal with Sprint to bring its Gmail client to sprint content deck, and has made other applications like Google Maps and Google News available for premium SMS download.

The Samsung deal, however, is among the first of Google’s efforts to get its software into the phone at the factory. Competitor Yahoo has been courting cellphone makers for years and has an extensive arrangement with Nokia to embed the Yahoo client in its devices. While those deals play well in Europe and other regions of the world where phones are sold independently of the carrier, they may not fly in the U.S. where the carrier dictates what software a phone ships with. Samsung for instance, is launching the new Ultra in Europe and has not stated when a U.S. version of the phone will be available.