The Google Phone

So, apparently Google is going to come out with their own phone - personally I've seen this coming for a while now, and I've got some ideas as to how it would work.
Actually, I can't say I really predicted Google coming out with their own device - I figured that they would only come out with their own phone if they couldn't get partners to agree to supporting their vision on the Android platform; since Google's building their own device, I'm guessing they couldn't.
So, how will it work? From a user perspective, here's how I think it'll go.
I want to talk to my friend, John Doe, and I'll just dial "John Doe" on my phone. The GPhone will automatically see if he's on Google Chat / Voice, and if so directly connect me to him that way - entirely via IP - if I'm on a wifi point then it'll use that, otherwise it'll use my data carrier. If John isn't on some kind of IP-enabled system, then it'll dial him by regular old phone, but of course doing it in a Skype / Calling-Card kind of way, using VOIP to get to the closest POTS switch and then dialing from there. If I want to dial a phone number directly without going through this username mumbo-jumbo, then I'll just dial it like a normal phone - the difference is that I'll be paying for that, either as a direct payment or by using up minutes in my plan. My guess is that Google will make calls to a persons Google ID free of charge, even if they're really doing some Google Voice mumbo-jumbo behind the scenes.
From a receiving standpoint, the phone will do the same thing - I'll have a Google Voice phone number, which will be tied into my Google ID - when someone calls my number or my ID, that'll get piped to my phone. I don't know if Google will charge for minutes when someone calls my number instead of my ID, but I suspect they might in order to further persuade folks to keep it all within the Google IP universe.
This phone's going to mark yet another change in the way we view communications, one that I think we're ready for. Not that long ago, we had to remember (or write down) people's phone numbers. Once cell phones came along, we slowly adjusted to not needing to remember numbers - I don't know about everyone else, but I haven't memorized a phone number in quite a few years (with the exception of my own or my wife's, and that's just so I can give it to people quickly). Over time, the association of numbers to people has even started to fade; I mean, if I think about it, I know that a person's entry in my phone is tied to a number, but I don't actually _think_ about it - if I send an SMS, I just send it to that person. I think part of Google's vision is to capitalize on this thought trend, and get people to stop caring about phone numbers entirely. If you get a person's phone number, you can call their phone; get their Google ID and you can IM (GTalk), send them email (GMail), see their public calendar (GCal), see where they physically are (Latitude), and, or course, call them on the phone - why would you ever bother to get a phone number again?
The only think that I wonder is where Google will find a carrier who is willing to support this device - after all, voice calls are the bread-and-butter of mobile telecoms, and SMS is the icing on the cake - the Google phone would destroy all of that. In order for this to work, Google needs to partner with a carrier that's willing to give folks a pure data plan that's going to have a _lot_ of bytes shoved through it, for a price that more than competes with a traditional plan - what carrier in the U.S. is going to willingly sign up for that? I'm guessing not Verizon, or else this would already be standard on the Droid (OK, maybe not "standard", but the phone would at least have some apps to replicate the functionality I'm talking about). Or, maybe Google has some plan to shift most of the data burden to something else that they control? Only time will tell, but expect we're going to find out RSN.