Google is seeking to grab a huge share of the mobile advertisting market with the launch of a “Google phone” specially tailored to its services.

The internet search giant is understood to be developing a prototype handset which is customised to showcase its products such as e-mail and Google Maps.

The phone, about which it has already held talks with mobile operators including Telefonica, is aimed at helping it to secure a chunk of the fast-growing mobile advertising market.

It hopes to replicate its success with internet advertising by acting as the "broker" for mobile advertisments.

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The failure of 3G services on mobile phones and a lack of web-friendly handsets has so far held back the market for mobile advertising.

But with phones becoming ever more sophisticated and the mobile network speeds faster – more than 20 per cent of UK mobile subscribers are expected to have access to the mobile internet at broadband speeds by the end of this year – mobile is now regarded as the next battleground for advertisers.

Sir Martin Sorrell, the advertising guru, recently highlighted the growing importance of mobile.

Early estimates by WPP, the marketing giant he founded, suggested that mobile phones, along with internet television and computer games, are set to secure a 15 per cent share of all spending on advertising by 2010.

Separate research by Informa Telecoms & Media forecasts that the market for advertising on mobile phones is set to be worth more than $11.3 billion annually in 2011.

Mobile is deemed so valuable in part because of the targeted nature of the advertising that the device allows. Eric Schmidt, head of Google, said recently that mobile phone ads are “twice as profitable or more ... than non-mobile phone ads because they are more personal”.

Google has already brokered tie-ups with mobile phone companies including Britain’s Vodafone. The mobile giant announced in February that it was collaborating with Google to develop mobile search services for its customers.

Google’s search engine also comes pre-loaded on handsets made by companies including Samsung and LG.

However, some mobile companies are thought to have felt wary about handing over too big a share of their revenues to the search giant.

Earlier this year some players, including France Telecom, held talks about creating their own rival search engine to challenge the likes of Google and Yahoo!.

After its initial collaboration with mobile companies, Google is now seeking to step up its efforts to grab the mobile ad pound with the creation of its own branded and designed handset and by developing more advanced services for phones.

Such a Google phone could go head-to-head with Apple's recently launched iPhone.

Sources said that any notion of a Google phone was "speculative".

A spokesman for Google in the UK said: “We are partnering with almost all of the carriers and manufacturers to get Google search and other Google applications on to their devices and networks.”

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