There’s This
It appears to some that Google is thinking about getting into the mobile phone business. From the press release this past Friday:
“As part of the nationally mandated transition to digital television, the 700 MHz spectrum auction — which begins January 24, 2008 — will free up spectrum airwaves for more efficient wireless Internet service for consumers. Advocacy by public interest groups and Google earlier this year helped ensure that regardless of which bidders win a key portion of the spectrum up for auction (the so-called “C Block”), they will be required to allow their users to download any software application they want on their mobile device, and to use any mobile devices they would like on that wireless network. The winner must ensure these rights for consumers if the reserve price of $4.6 billion for the C Block is met at auction.”
“We believe it’s important to put our money where our principles are,” said Eric Schmidt, Chairman and CEO, Google. “Consumers deserve more competition and innovation than they have in today’s wireless world. No matter which bidder ultimately prevails, the real winners of this auction are American consumers who likely will see more choices than ever before in how they access the Internet.”
Other companies have chosen to team up with established players in the industry to gain a foothold. That’s a good strategy if you’re planning to produce some merchandise for sale. Google’s application to the FCC will list no partners. Could it be that there is no “GooglePhone”? So why would they care what happens with all that bandwidth?
There’s That
Let’s look at something else Google has been doing lately.
Earlier last month, Google announced the release of its open source Android mobile operating system and development software. The guys at Android say this in their “Introducing Android” video: “There is no gPhone”
So if there’s no gPhone, what’s the deal? Google might be the “Do No Evil” company, but they are definitely into “Doing Some Profits”. How will they profit?
The same way they always have, through advertising. Think about this: if our pc’s tell companies so much about us, and those companies are buying all that info to target each of us with our own personalised ads, how much more personal can our phone records be? And with social networking rabidly infecting everything we do, marketers should be able to tie our online habits of both types together with ease. Google stands to make at least a hundred dollars.
I’ll try to leave you with this quote I found on Broadband Reports:
“Imagine an iPhone where the whole thing is a screen and the bottom eighth is banner ads running across,” said Iain Gillott, a wireless analyst at IGR. “Spectrum is king; you own everything.”
And The Other Thing
Of course, he may have it wrong about the ads. There is also this video, called “If I had a Magic Phone“. Maybe this is what Google is thinking after all….
I am Jon, and I want my phone to fix me a sandwich, please.