Its a fair question, when I was there Google was all over the design of the handsets (the original 'Dream' phone), they did the Nexus One with HTC, after I had left, they bought Motorola Mobility which did the Moto phones and that group mixed in with the Android handsets folks. Then Lenovo bought it from them.

Google's biggest challenge was customer support, they just didn't do the whole "someone to pick up the phone and talk to you" thing.

So I'd say, they have a core capability to do handset design (perhaps some of it residual) and they likely strongly influence the hardware they sell. Is their bench as deep as Apples? No.