Google and Cell Phones

[tmobilefan]

Talk about Google and cell phones here.


Google investing heavily in cell phones - WSJ

After pulling in billions of dollars from online advertising, the search giant is looking to mobile phone ads, according to The Wall Street Journal.

August 2 2007: 1:40 PM EDT


NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Google, the Internet search giant that's pulled in billions of dollars in online advertising, is looking to break into the market for mobile phone ads, according to one report Thursday.
Advertising on cell phones is a fast-growing market, and Google (http://money.cnn.com/quote/quote.html?symb=GOOG&source=story_quote_link) (down $2.62 to $510.32, Charts (http://money.cnn.com/quote/chart/chart.html?symb=GOOG&source=story_charts_link), Fortune 500 (http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2007/snapshots/3967.html?source=story_f500_link)) has invested hundreds of millions of dollars to capture a chunk of it, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing unnamed sources.
Following the launch of the wildly popular (http://money.cnn.com/news/specials/iphone/) Apple (http://money.cnn.com/quote/quote.html?symb=AAPL&source=story_quote_link) (up $0.03 to $135.03, Charts (http://money.cnn.com/quote/chart/chart.html?symb=AAPL&source=story_charts_link), Fortune 500 (http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2007/snapshots/114.html?source=story_f500_link)) iPhone, Google phones are still in development, and won't be available to consumers until next year at the earliest.
Google's mobile phone plan could offer features such as its search engine and maps on certain phones.
While Google's powerhouse brand could drive customers to wireless carriers like AT&T (http://money.cnn.com/quote/quote.html?symb=ATT&source=story_quote_link) (up $0.23 to $23.55, Charts (http://money.cnn.com/quote/chart/chart.html?symb=ATT&source=story_charts_link)), Verizon Wireless (http://money.cnn.com/quote/quote.html?symb=VZ&source=story_quote_link) (down $0.26 to $42.98, Charts (http://money.cnn.com/quote/chart/chart.html?symb=VZ&source=story_charts_link), Fortune 500 (http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2007/snapshots/1525.html?source=story_f500_link)) and T-Mobile (http://money.cnn.com/quote/quote.html?symb=DT&source=story_quote_link) (up $0.33 to $17.61, Charts (http://money.cnn.com/quote/chart/chart.html?symb=DT&source=story_charts_link)), the carriers are reluctant to give up control of the mobile advertising market. Last year, worldwide spending on cell phone ads was about $1.5 billion, research firm eMarketer told the Journal, but should reach $14 billion by 2011.
Mountain View, Calif.-based Google is certain about its plans to develop software and services for cell phones, however.
Google may bid in wireless spectrum auction (http://money.cnn.com/2007/07/20/technology/bc.google.spectrum.reut/index.htm)
"What's interesting about the ads in the mobile phone is that they are twice as profitable or more than the nonmobile phone ads because they're more personal," Google CEO Eric Schmidt said in May.
And Google may turn into a mobile phone operator itself. In July, the company said it's considering a bid for wireless-spectrum licenses at a government auction expected to occur in December or January. The Federal Communications Commission recently issued rules for the auction addressing some of Google's concerns.
However, that project could take several years and billions of dollars to come together, The Wall Street Journal said.

Google spending hundreds of millions on mobile phone project - Aug. 2, 2007 (http://money.cnn.com/2007/08/02/technology/google_mobile.reut/?postversion=2007080213)

[tmobilefan]

Google Spending Hundreds Of Millions On Mobile

Google has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in its cell phone project and is courting U.S. and European mobile operators, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

By Reuters
InformationWeek
August 2, 2007 07:54 PM



NEW YORK - Google Inc has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in its cell phone project and is courting U.S. and European mobile operators, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

Anian, a Reuters company that tracks industry trends for institutional investors, reported last month that Google had engaged Taiwan's High Tech Computer Corp to design a Linux software-based phone for launch in the first quarter of 2008.

The Anian report cited industry sources as saying T-Mobile, owned by Deutsche Telekom, would likely be Google's U.S. partner with France Telecom's Orange selling the phones in other markets.

The Journal said on Thursday Google had also approached the two biggest U.S. wireless services, AT&T Inc and Verizon Wireless, in recent months to ask them to sell phones with Google service.

It cited a Verizon Wireless executive saying the company had decided not to integrate Google's Web search tightly into its phones because of Google's advertising revenue-sharing demands. The newspaper said the executive had not commented on a Google phone.

A person familiar with the situation told Reuters that talks between Verizon Wireless, owned by Verizon Communications Inc and Vodafone Group Plc, and Google have ended without resulting in an agreement.

Representatives for Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile and AT&T declined to comment.

T-Mobile and Vodafone already incorporate Google search in their mobile Web service in Europe, while AT&T offers it as one of several Web search options.

"We talk to a lot of different companies and we're not going to comment on our discussions with any of them," said Mark Siegel, an AT&T spokesman.

Google said in an e-mailed response that it is "partnering with carriers, manufacturers, and content providers around the world," without giving further details.

It has said wireless was an increasingly important market but it has not announced plans to build a phone. It said last week that Sprint Nextel(S) Corp would feature Google services on devices for a new wireless network the No. 3 U.S. mobile service is building.

Google has also developed prototype phones and talked over technical specifications with manufacturers including LG Electronics, The Wall Street Journal said.

Mobile advertising is still a relatively small market but advertisers and wireless experts expect this to change.

Yankee Group has forecast the mobile ad market will more than quadruple to $275 million in 2007 and eventually grow to $2.2 billion in 2010, up from an estimated $60 million in 2006. Some experts are forecasting an even bigger market. (Reporting by Sinead Carew and Paritosh Bansal in New York and Nicola Leske in Munich)


Google Spending Hundreds Of Millions On Mobile -- Mobile -- InformationWeek (http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=201202777)

[tmobilefan]

Report: Google shows phone prototype to vendors
Analysts disagree about its potential for success

August 02, 2007 (IDG News Service) -- Google Inc. has developed a prototype cell phone that could reach markets within a year, and plans to offer consumers free subscriptions by bundling advertisements with its search engine, e-mail and Web browser software applications, according to a story published Thursday in The Wall Street Journal.

Google is showing the prototype to cell phone manufacturers and network operators as it continues to hone the technical specifications that will allow the phone to offer a better mobile Web browsing experience than current products, the Journal said.

Google declined to comment on the report of the prototype, but confirmed that it is working with partners to expand its software applications from the traditional Internet to mobile devices.

"We're partnering with carriers, manufacturers and content providers around the world to bring Google search and Google applications to mobile users everywhere," Google spokesman Michael Kirkland said in an e-mail statement.

"What our users and partners are telling us is that they want Google search and Google applications on mobile, and we are working hard every day to deliver that," Kirkland said.

The move would echo another recent product launched by a phone industry outsider, Apple Inc.'s iPhone. But Google's product would draw its revenue from a sharply different source, relying on commercial advertising dollars instead of the sticker price of at least $499 for an iPhone and $60 per month for the AT&T Inc. service plan.

Negotiating the fairest way to split those advertising revenues with service providers could be a big hurdle for Google, one analyst said. Another problem is the potential that consumers could be scared off by the prospect of listening to advertisements before being able to make phone calls, said Jeff Kagan, a wireless and telecommunications industry analyst in Atlanta.

"I don't know how successful it's going to be. The model of an ad-supported wireless Web has not been successful over the past 10 years," he said, referring to municipal Wi-Fi networks that offer free Internet connections to users willing to view advertisements while they surf the Web.

"The average adult who can afford a cell phone is not going to want to listen to ads. So this is mainly for teenagers, twenty-somethings, high schoolers or people who can't afford a phone," said Kagan.

Industry watchers have long heard rumors that Google was designing its own mobile phone. Google added fuel to that speculation in July when it announced it was willing to spend $4.6 billion to buy wireless spectrum in a U.S. Federal Communications Commission auction.

At the same time, an increasing number of industry newcomers have made bids to enter the market, such as Apple with the iPhone and The Walt Disney Co., which launched a wireless version of its ESPN cable sports channel that ultimately failed.

"We see the cell phone industry continuing to evolve," Kagan said. "We're still going to see traditional handsets, but the Apple iPhone was a brand new category in wireless, and it wasn't from a handset vendor and wasn't from a network."

Google's success in its venture will depend largely on the details it is still defining with its manufacturing and network partners, and whether customers are willing to trade user fees for intrusive advertising, he said.

"There are a lot of unknowns, but generally speaking, it hasn't worked yet," said Kagan.

Report: Google shows phone prototype to vendors (http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=mobile_and_wireless&articleId=9028763&taxonomyId=15&intsrc=it_blogwatch)

[tmobilefan]

The fact that Google is trying to take a bite of the Apple pie–that is, prepping a launch of its own mobile phone–is perhaps Silcon Valley’s worst-kept secret. As the rumors currently stand, the “Gphone” will come to America sometime next Spring, likely riding on back T-Mobile’s network, and, according to some reports, costing the Gguys several hundred million dollars in development costs.

So what will that money get them/us? If they want to compete in the ever-crowded mobile marketplace, which is increasingly filled with newcomers who made their name in other sectors of the tech biz, it’ll have to be plenty. Sure, seamless integration with Google Documents, Calendar, YouTube, etc… etc… etc… is a given. But here’s what we’d really like to see if they have any hope of getting us to ditch our iPhone/RAZR/Prada/wood block.

AD-SUPPORTED FREE CALLS:

Without a doubt, the most exciting part of the Gphone rumor-mongering is the word that phone might use ads to subsidize your minutes and texts. In other words–free calls! How they would go about doing this without completely ruining the experience is anybody’s guess. Simple SMS ads that arrive in your inbox would likely be deleted, and being forced to listen to a recording for Macy’s before you’re allowed to make a call would quickly prove annoying, or even dangerous (”Your call to 911 is brought to you by Goodyear. Goodyear: That’s driving excitement.”)

Luckily, Google is the master of ninja advertising. Google’s AdSense ads are incredibly unobtrusive–typically floating by in tiny print on the sides of pages. And you know what–these work better. When I’m not bombarded with a barrage of obnoxious ads, I’m much more likely to pay attention and click if one looks like it might be useful. In the end, however, I simply don’t believe Google would allow their ads to ruin the mobile experience or be intrusive to the point of counter-productivity. Perhaps an ad would flash on your screen while your phone dials.

The SMS bit is much easier–they’d simply add a little ad link to the bottom of your texts. No biggie, and nothing that would keep you from knowing where anybody is at. Anyway. If they can pull this off and actually reduce or destroy our monthly bills, no amount of multi-touch nonsense will be able to keep us or anybody else away from this thing.

OS:

Web portals, and Google in particular, have nearly all the making’s of a self-contained operating system. You’ve got your word processor, spread sheet, image editing software, etc.. etc…, all within easy clicking. As a result, it simply doesn’t make sense that Google would tie their phone down with an existing OS, and all the baggage that comes with it. Much more likely is that the entire interface will resemble a customizable iGoogle page–displaying exactly which programs you like, along with someRSS feeds.

Just please, for the love of G-d, don’t use Windows Mobile.

Grand Central:

Since Google, you know, own’s Grand Central, they’d be foolish to omit some of the telephoney service’s more enticing features. For example, the ability to forward calls for free would be a wonder–most carriers charge you almost a buck per call for theprivilege . And, even though the iPhone already integrates ability to visually choose which voice mail without skipping through all your saved messages (one of the nicer features of Grand Central), it would be great if you could listen in live as somebody leaves a message and pick up halfway through–a rotary-esque feature that Grand Central finally brings to the digital age.

Documents:

It should go without saying that whatever word processor the Gphone uses should automatically back up your text in Google Documents. What would be really great is if you could type a document in Google Documents from home, and have the document instantly pop up in your account on your phone, ready for you to pick up where you left off. Take that Mobile Word!

Google Talk:

Using your phone for IM is so Sidekick II. If you could use your phone to talk, Skype-style, with somebody you are IMing, that’d be great. Keyboard-tap what you’d like to say, click a button to activate your microphone, and bam, they hear what you say as your chatting. Throw in some two-way videoconferencing and you’ve got the perfect mobile communicator.

Blogger:

Right now, blogging from a phone ain’t easy business, and is so troublesome that 90 percent of the time, we wait until we’re back at our laptops before making even the simplest posts. Built-in Blogger integration could revolutionize the way we blog on-the-go. Seriously.

Picasa:
Imagine snapping a photo with the built-in camera and having Picasa instantly load up for visual tweeking. No more blur, no more red eye, no more awful cameraphone shots.

Google Maps:
For the love of God, if you’re going to do this, do it right, and include an active GPS reciever.

The Futurist: What We’d Like To See In A Google Phone (http://crunchgear.com/2007/08/09/the-futurist-what-wed-like-to-see-in-a-google-phone/)