After years of firmware development under Google’s aegis, the first open-source Android-powered phone, T-Mobile’s G1, will be in stores on October 22nd.

And it is a phone, despite what Google’s co-head-honcho blurted out:

“This is as good a computer as you had a few years ago,” said Google’s co-founder Larry Page, who along with the company’s other co-founder, Sergey Brin, arrived on roller blades at the New York stage where the companies held a news conference.

Wrong. Wrong-wrong-wrong. If Google wants to torpedo this effort before it even gets started, a good way to do that is by referring to an Android device as “a computer”.

Simply put, when consumers buy a phone, they want a phone. It doesn’t matter how much the handsets they’re carrying around — even the most stripped-down ones — are really more computer hardware than telephony equipment. Perceptionally, the idea that the handset should do its primary job — make and receive voice phonecalls — is key. For all the other functions, even commonplace ones like texting, most people place the highest priority upon their phone performing best when carrying out its primary function. Otherwise it’s not useful enough to occupy pocket/purse space.

So if the concept of the G1 gets passed along as being, first and foremost, a computer instead of a phone, that will turn off the very mass market that (presumably) Google wants to snag. Again, the reality that every mobile phone is essentially a computer doesn’t matter — the perception does. Even Apple has acknowledged this, as illustrated by having practically every iPhone ad include a mention or demonstration of a phonecall taking place.

You’d think Page would be more circumspect. Maybe Google is setting up Android as a loss-leader? I’ve already speculated that the elements are in place for Android to fail; maybe Mountain View got the memo.