November 26, 2007

Google has big plans for conquering the mobile market

There have been rumors about Google's grand entry into the mobile market for months. Some were expecting a Google-branded mobile phone, the gPhone, but it turned out to be a open source-based mobile application platform that should be available on various mobile (smart)phones from e.g. Motorola, Samsung, HTC and LG by mid-2008. Actually, Google will not just deliver the platform called Android but it will also its application suite (Google Maps, search, Gmail, calendar, chat, ...) to that mobile platform to conquer the mobile market. Because Android is an acquisition that Google made in 2005, it is interesting to look at the acquisitions that Google made since then but also the patents that Google has submitted. On the acquisition front, take a look at what Google can do with Jaiku, the Twitter-like microblogging and social networking tool, or the mobile social network Zingku. The acquisition of Grand Central has gone a little bit unnoticed by the analysts, but may turn out to be extremely important for Google's Gmail and Gtalk success). On the patent side, the text message micro-payment solution could turn out to be the most interesting of all.

While the Android platform announcement was a bit of an anti-climax for some analysts who had expected to see a real mobile device running Google's killer applications, we think this is a very significant move in Google's Web domination campaign. However, a few questions and issues remain unanswered:


  • Given that the Open Handset Alliance relies heavily on Linux and Java, why was Sun not a part of the Android announcement ? Could this have something to do with the Apache license that Google uses for its open source platform ?

  • Given that this will be Linux-based, how will this influence the battle between the Microsoft's Windows Mobile, Symbian, Apple IPhone and Mobile Linux platforms ? Om Malik has an interesting discussion about this, including a confidential smartphone market share slide by Symbian. Will Android impose a landslide in market share for Linux ? Will open source developers start developing a compatibility layer for Google's apps for Windows Mobile, Symbian and IPhone based on what they see in the Android source ? Why wouldn't these clever open source developers produce a version for high-definition television sets, a market that Google definitely not wants to miss, but is pretty quiet about.

  • Will the strong bond between Google's applications and the Android platform - even though it is open source - not give rise to antitrust discussions about monopolies, consumer choice, ... ?

Will definitely be continued ...

Posted by admin at November 26, 2007 04:48 PM
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