RSSGoogle, The Mobile Phone Manufacturer?
By Ed Oswald | Published August 2, 2007, 2:38 PM
Google has been testing the waters in the wireless industry, seeing if there is enough support for it to offer mobile phones customized to include various services provided by the company.
While the company will not manufacture the devices directly, it has apparently provided a list of specs to manufacturers, the Wall Street Journal reports. It has also apparently talked with at least two carriers, Verizon and T-Mobile.
Among the operators who it has talked to, T-Mobile USA seems to be most receptive to the plan. It is also talking to carriers internationally, the paper says.
Early prototypes seen by those close to the situation have likened them to a Treo or BlackBerry. One is said to look like one of the newer business-centric Nokia phones with a keyboard that slides out.
Hundreds of millions have already been invested into the project, and will probably include a tie-in to its massive advertising platform. No firm release date has been set, although they may make an appearance next year at the earliest.
“Google understands that ad monetization means that other services can be made cheaper. Carriers spend billions of dollars a year on building and maintaining infrastructure," Medio Systems chief advertising officer Omar Tawakol said.
"Obviously carriers don’t want to pay for infrastructure that someone else gives away for free. The white label solution is to work with the carriers and not compete with them."
The Mountain View, Calif. company is not commenting on the rumors of a Google phone, only saying it is actively pursuing deals to place Google products on mobile phones.
In any case, it appears that it may be hard for Google to convince some carriers to sign onto its plans. Some take issue with the amount of control Google is looking to have over mobile advertising as part of its deals, saying the company wants too large a share of revenues.
Mobile advertising is one of the fastest growing segments in online advertising, and it is expected to grow to a $14 billion business within in the next five years. Obviously, mobile phone operators are hesitant to relinquish control of what could be a substantial source of income in the years to come.
We're looking forward to it!
http://www.GoogleMobilePhone.net
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|haha its going to be GOOGLE EVERYWHERE.
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|Google only hires the best. And even though this would be a new project for them, I believe if anyone could get it right; it's Google.
As long as they're tech support isn't Crappy like Sprints, and how AT&T has been since the iPhone; flooded.
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|Awesome.
I shed no tears for the current state of the mobile market nor providers like Verizon AT&T/. It's such poor quality, service, and reliability. This can only help.
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|What an excellent idea. After all, what a market flooded with a massive range of models all pretty much doing the same, which they can only sell by giving them away free as upgrades to renew your contract, is yet another one.
Those serious about mobile phones kept their Nokia 6310i's.
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|I'd get a gphone before i got an iphone .. but i think that google is just offering to license certain technology to be used in pre-existing or upcoming phones.
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|I believe you are correct.
I doubt Google has any intention of going into the commodity device manufacturing business.
{edit}
My initial thoughts were that they were going to lease blocks to third parties for content rights. I have also, more recently, begun tinkering with the idea that they may be trying to convince certain parties of a new "bluetooth-like" tech for updating phones and content without the cellular network. Instead of drawing the content off the cell-towers, it would draw it (and it may be they could possibly route actual calls this way) from other phones in close proximity. I am thinking this might be a little over and above Google's capabilities, however.
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|what in the world are you babbling about?
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|My guess is Google wants to make sure they can still reach people without having to pay tolls to get on the info highway. They have to be concerned with the FCC basically bending over for AT&T to throw out net neutrality discussion.
The frequencies being opening up travel through walls very easily, thereby decreasing dead spots substantially.
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|his intelligence is over 9000.
Basically he just highlighted someways google might be trying to sell their tech for them to implement in other cell phones.
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|LMAO! right.
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|*laughs*
Pitdingo, some advice;
It is better to be quiet and thought an idiot than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt.
You just removed all doubt. Good on you, mate.
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|his intelligence is over 9000.
It's just a little lower than that. ;)
Basically he just highlighted someways google might be trying to sell their tech for them to implement in other cell phones.
Pointless. He's trolling. It was obvious from my post, so explanation isn't needed.
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|In short, you just believe that Google doesn't want go much further than data services and stay away from consumer electronics, and I can see why since it's what they've always done, and offering actual products is a whole other type of licensing and business objective to take on.
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|Exactly.
Occam's Razor.
When faced with multiple explanations, the ones with the least amount of deviation from the norms are generally far more likely to be true.
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|It's the GPhone vs. the IPhone
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|More manufacturers are always welcome in my book, as long as they produce a quality product.
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|But it'll offer nothing that the others already don't. What's the point? And why would a search engine company be any good at designing a phone?
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|People said the same about Apple, and the iPhone did get pretty popular.
Why would Motorola or LG be any good at designing a phone either? Why would anyone at all, really?
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