Google Patent Triggers Mobile Rumors - Why Would Google Make a Cell Phone?
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What would Google get out of having its own cell phone? If the system were ad-supported, as many of the rumors imply it would be, the search engine giant could gain quite a lot of money. Some analysts expect the mobile advertising market to hit $11 billion by 2011. That’s a lot of money, even though it’s only worth $450 million today.
Google has already been cutting deals with mobile phone companies to put its applications on phones. It is known to have deals with Vodafone, Samsung and LG. And in July, it partnered with Sprint Nextel to provide users of that network with web services that include email, chat, and social networking tools. That may not be enough, however.
Google’s two search rivals actually have more on the ball when it comes to mobile devices. Yahoo has been working on the mobile marketplace for a long time. Its OneSearch mobile search engine even replaced Google on the mobile version of the Opera browser. As for Microsoft, its software is shipping on 20 million mobile devices this year alone, and it is reportedly thinking about making its own mobile phone, which would of course feature the Windows Mobile OS.
Mobile surfing has a lot of room for growth. Jupiter Research estimates that only 15 percent of mobile phone users have browsed the Internet from their phones. If Google could build a phone that would actually make it fun to surf the web, the product might catch on. If it can find a way to cut the costs, it would really have something. Smart phones that do awesome things aren’t cheap, and when you factor in the phone bills – which usually include charges for roaming and surfing the Internet – you have a continuing headache, as many iPhone owners have found out to their dismay.
In any case, looking at the GPay system by itself, it’s the sort of thing that benefits from scale – or, to put it almost oxymoronically, a lot of people won’t use it until they see that a lot of people are using it. Some may be concerned about its safety and security, while others will simply shrug and decide that it’s faster to pay by credit card or cash. Combine it with the still-mythical GPhone, however, and you potentially have a revenue stream coming in from a source other than advertising – something that Google has needed for a long time.
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