Google Puts Smartphones on Full Attention
“The mobile phone is for the next decade what the computer has been for the last two or three,” Michael Jones, Chief Technology Advocate for Google Inc.
This statement was made back in May, and since then we have seen Google take many steps towards ensuring their place in the mobile world. The various efforts of Google within mobile are almost too numerous to mention all at once. Google already operates the third largest mobile ad network in the US. It is clear that they see the evolution of the mobile device as synonymous with the evolution of the internet. In an interview with the Globe and Mail, Mike Jones continued, “The whole experience of the Internet is becoming not a desktop computer experience, but a personal experience. It’s something you’re going to grow up with and you’re going to live with all your life and I think every handheld device will have all of those experiences.” Google’s place as the internet’s potentate has always been sealed by its ability to monetize it. Its latest move into mobile appears to be on the same path.
With the rapid development and increasing popularity of smartphones, now boasting full HTML browsers, Google has offered up a product to mobile publishers. It is an additional option in Adsense, which allows publishers to run bigger ads on devices like the iPhone, Palm Pre, and other androids. Google also offers the option to select “iPhone and other high-end devices only” rather than “all phones”. Gartner estimates that the sale of smartphones will soar by 27% in 2009, to 177 million units. An article in the New York Times outlines just how hard Google has worked on this development, and just how determined it’s staff appear to be on catering to smartphones. The company’s advertising strategy, ““bet very big on these more sophisticated handsets,” said Vic Gundotra, vice president for engineering at Google.
Match this development with the other recent Google advancements into mobile territory and you see a company poised to carry us into a monetized mobile world. Google has just implemented ads and user generated content into iPhone maps, new Adwords options for the iPhone and G1, Adsense for Mobile Applications beta, and a revamped local search service for mobile phones. However, speculators remain sceptical of the earning potential within mobile. Although the use value and inherent scale are beyond doubt, analysts believe “ in 2013, mobile search would bring in less than 2 percent of projected Google revenues for that year” ($650 million). My guess would be that Google is onto the right scent, and although Microsoft are on the case with the 6th largest US mobile ad network and its own mobile services, I would say that Google’s large bet on mobile is a good one.
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