All we've read about for the past six weeks is that Google was leading up to a huge launch of a proprietary "Google Phone."

This earth-shaking event was going to mark Google's entry into the hardware business, a move that would revolutionize the mobile industry and put Google in direct competition with hardware partners and competitors like Motorola, Nokia, and Apple.

All we read about yesterday, meanwhile, was how the amazing launch of "Google's own mobile handset," the Nexus One, was going to knock Apple silly and disrupt the decades-old carrier-dominated mobile phone distribution business.

So, forgive us if we're missing something, but isn't it fair to say that what Google actually did yesterday was open a mobile phone store?

Let's review:

The phone is made by HTC and branded "HTC"

HTC is supporting the phone

Google will eventually be selling other mobile phones in the store

T-Mobile isn't giving Nexus One buyers any special Google Phone deal--you can add any unlocked phone to the network for the same price

Google did not make the phone

Google did not design the phone

Google did not outsource the making or design of a proprietary phone (this is an HTC phone)

Google is not marketing the phone as a "Google Phone"

Google is not saying "This is OUR phone"

So tell us again how this is a "Google Phone"?

Yes, Google is the "merchant of record" if you buy a Nexus One from Google's phone store. But Amazon is the merchant of record if you buy a phone in their mobile phone store, too. Ditto for the carriers. And, yes, Google is getting sued by the daughter of Philip K Dick for stealing cool names like "Android" and "Nexus." But Philip K Dick's daughter would be suing anyone with deep pockets (and "Android" also isn't a Google Phone).

So, again, forgive us if we're being dim, but it seems to as though what Google did yesterday was open a store.