A recent study by The Equs Group shows that 55.5% of U.S. consumers would purchase a mobile device made by Google or Yahoo if such hardware existed. That's a lot of trust in brands that have no history in actually designing, engineering and manufacturing mobile devices.The results of Equs' study shed some interesting color on the strength of certain brands. A couple of months ago, "the Google phone" was all the rage on rumor sites and blogs. Everyone thought they had an inside lead on a new mobile device from Google, and some even named intended manufacturers of the device. None of the rumors panned out, or at least Google really hasn't confirmed anything substantive. I can't say I've ever seen a rumor about a Yahoo-branded mobile phone.

What I want to know is what instills such trust among consumers in the Google and Yahoo brands that a majority said they'd buy a phone from them? Twenty-one percent of respondents said they would not buy such a device, and the remaining 23% were undecided. What has convinced 55.5% of people that Google or Yahoo could get it right? Equs CEO Al Nazareli said, "In addition to these findings, we also found that 69% of consumers currently use mobile search tools on their mobile phones. Because search functionality is so highly utilized by mobile phone users, Google and Yahoo! are uniquely well-positioned to enter the mobile device market and may have an advantage over other consumer brands looking to enter the space."

Is mobile search that important to people? According to Equs' numbers, yes. Nearly 69% of respondents regularly use mobile search tools on their phones. There must be a perception that Yahoo or Google branded devices would offer a superior search experience. Would that really be the case? Hard to say. Mobile search tools are widely available to many phones. What could a Google or Yahoo piece of hardware do to further improve upon what's already out in the market?

I mean, we already have mobile browser-based search, SMS-based search, and even voice-based mobile search. What's next, search engines that read your mind and answer you before you've even sent the question?