Google appears to be preparing to market its own smartphone, a move that would intensify the company’s rivalry with Apple, whose iPhone dominates the high-end smartphone market in the United States.

On Friday, Google distributed a new phone running its own Android operating software to many of its employees. On the messaging service Twitter, some Google employees described the device as a “Google phone,” renewing speculation that the company is getting ready to release a mobile phone with its own brand.

Google employees who asked not to be identified confirmed recently that the company was indeed developing new hardware and software for Android phones and coming up with new ways to get those phones into the hands of consumers, but they would not give more details. One Google employee said the new phone, which is being made by HTC, a major Taiwanese cellphone maker, was designed from the ground up by Google.

The Wall Street Journal reported on its Web site late Saturday that Google would sell the phone directly to consumers rather than through carriers, which sell the bulk of mobile phones in the United States.