Google Phone

Android has the traditional carriers unnerved at the prospect of a rapidly evolving business model - unnerved enough for historically closed Verizon Wireless to let down the CDMA drawbridge, even - with open-source software promising to flood the market with low-cost, highly adapted cellular devices and advertising revenue supplanting monthly contracts and expensive add-ons.  Yet some believe this upheaval is merely the beginning; Linux software provider Wind River Systems dispatched their chief marketing officer, John Bruggeman, to talk to ZDNet’s Dana Gardner about not only the advancing role of geo-specific search and advertising, but the future of Android as a platform for mobile devices and the successful software that’s to run on it.

“You’ve got your phone. And, I know physically where that [phone’s] IP address is. You are around the corner from Starbucks. Now, is Starbucks going to be willing to pay a premium to get you to drive or walk around the corner? Or, I know you’re sitting in the airport terminal. All the possibilities become very powerful concepts” John Bruggerman, Wind River Systems

With Google already experimenting with mobile adverts, and Microsoft this week launching both banner and text adverts on their MSN Mobile portal, it seems a safe bet that the business model is set to evolve.  Yet as eWeek’s Clint Boulton points out, consumers already consider banners passé and are fearful that the adverts will “clutter the tiny screens” of their devices.  The key difference will be targeting promotional content so that it is both personally and situationally specific enough to be of interest (rather than frustration) to the user, and cost effective to the company funding the advert who is, in effect, subsidising the user’s connection.

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While some are content to pit Android against atypical ‘rivals’ like the iPhone, InformationWeek’s Eric Zeman is posing the far more realistic question of what Nokia can do to preserve their 78-percent smartphone OS market share. 

“Even the latest iteration of S60 (which has been under constant development for eons) doesn’t do some of the things we saw in the Android demo. While Symbian and Nokia are probably hard at work developing touch-capable software and phones, Google already has done it, to a certain extent. The demos highlight how applications can be used and tied together seamlessly to create a natural workflow” Eric Zeman, InformationWeek

Thing is, Nokia have already been showing off their touchscreen cellphone concept: the imaginatively named Nokia Touch, which is set to launch sometime next year complete with the next generation in haptic-feedback.

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Say what you like about chair-throwing Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer (and lord knows, most people do), he know how to give a good soundbite.  When asked for his reaction to Android at a Tokyo news conference, the opinionated exec dismissed the new platform, calling it “just some words on paper” and going on to emphasise the market share Windows Mobile has among smartphones.

“Right now they have a press release, we have many, many millions of customers, great software, many hardware devices and they’re welcome in our world” Steve Ballmer, CEO, Microsoft

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It’s taken a little while, but Microsoft has finally thrown its oar in to the 700MHz spectrum auction furore, but for anybody expecting a sweeping “we could do that best” arrogance oft attributed to the Seattle software giant you may be surprised.  At CTIA this week, Steve Ballmer - who could never be accused of being less than enthusiastic about Microsoft’s capabilities - set the record straight about the company’s plans to sit back and observe the auction rather than wade in with an open wallet.

“No, we don’t have plans to participate in the spectrum auction.  We may be broader in what we do than any company, but we have a core competency. And we think the telecom industry has a core competency. It takes a real expertise to set up networks, to invest in capital expenditures, to provide customer service 24/7—that is a core competency. What would it buy us to own a piece of the spectrum? It would probably alienate us”Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO

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Just as happened with the iPhone, the prophesied Google cellphone is causing pre-emptive waves across newsrooms and blogs as various agencies sift through the scant evidence and clamour to have their say.  Today it’s the turn of the New York Times, who are keen to differentiate between the “revolutionary” and “customer experience redefining” iPhone and Google’s potential next-step into the mobile marketplace.

No longer is this step a rumour; it’s become a matter of when and not if.  NYT’s Miguel Helft is quick to label the search giant’s intent: using mobile ads to broaden their market share.  If anything, Helft makes it sound like, where Apple planned a revolution in the cellphone industry, Google aren’t particularly bothered what industry they’re entering, just as long as it caters to their role as advert and search provider.

“Google wants to extend its dominance of online advertising to the mobile Internet, a small market today, but one that is expected to grow rapidly. It hopes to persuade wireless carriers and mobile phone makers to offer phones based on its software” Miguel Helft, NYT

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The Hindustan Times recently had an article written by Puneet Mehrotra, a web strategist, who had a lot of good info, a nice recap, and grouped it all together in a summary in the form of Pro’s, Con’s, and indifferent. One of those things was the nick name for the Google gPhone as the Goophone, which, in my opinion, makes it sound like a device, not from Google Labs, but from Nickelodeon labs.

Anyways, onto what really matters, first, Google has reportedly partnered with Vodafone, Samsung, and LG. Another upside is that if Google were successful with their ad-funded platform that would put Google that much closer to taking down Microsoft, to some that’s good, to some that’s not, me personally, I don’t think Microsoft needs taken down, maybe just knocked down a notch or two, anyways, back to Google’s gPhone.

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Honestly, first Forbes and now Microsoft - Google’s cellphone software engineers are taking a beating lately, as pundits and providers alike take issue with the company’s potential move into providing handset OS and applications.  Today it’s the turn of Bill Gates - normally so shy and retiring - who is reported as saying of Google’s ambitions:

“They’ve introduced about 30 different products; they have one profit-making product. So you’re now making a prediction without ever seeing the software that they’re going to have the world’s best phone and it’s going to be free?”

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