Google Phone Design Patent

Was Google planning to come out with its own cell phone before the HTC Dream became official? A patent application by Google was recently dug up, and dates way back to August 2007. If you take a good look at the design, it actually gives very detailed information regarding the G1’s current sliding “arc” motion, which indicates that Google was cooking up a phone similar to the HTC Dream back then. Did Google plan to enter the cell phone manufacturing business, or was it just helping HTC come up with ideas? Let us know what you think of the whole issue.