Google Phone
Friday, November 09, 2007
This week, Google revealed their plans for what they predict will be a revolution for mobile telecommunications. It’s called the Android and it’s about as sexy as you might expect an android to be.
Google, along with 33 telecommunication companies, has created the Open Handset Alliance. Their aim, according to the LA Times, is to “spur innovation by giving independent engineers the chance to write programs for phones, with no need for permission from mobile network operators or phone manufacturers.”
It’s a noble and hefty goal, especially when you take into consideration the current state of the mobile telecom industry in the States, which many deem to be a monopoly of sorts. The most recent news to hit this cord, of course, was that the iPhone can only be purchased if you have AT&T service. To put it lightly, we Verizon customers felt short changed.
The U.S. is one of the few, if not the only country to have this kind of set up. In other countries, cell phones are independent from service carriers and can be changed with a simple switch of a sim card.
Another issue Google aims to tackle through this endeavor is the inability for its ads to show up on many current smartphones. With Android, Google is creating a web browser for mobile phones that will show a website so that Google ads are visible and clickable. Google is then leaving it up to the companies in the Alliance to create the applications for their cell phones.
So, what can we, both the costumer and the marketer, expect? As a costumer, all phones with the Android technology will not look the same, so style and features will still highly depend on the manufacturer. However, we can all rest assured that surfing the web on the phone will become much easier and will resemble the experience we have on our computers much more.
As a marketer, it will mean the true beginning of mobile telecom marketing. Right now, we talk about it, but few truly consider it when developing a campaign. And for good reason, because for those of us without an iPhone, the Internet experience on a smartphone is frustrating, to say the least.
As the Android and its spawning cell phones develop, we marketers will be keeping a close watch. Overture (a former Connors client) and Yahoo may have brought us SEM, but it was Google that really made SEO popular. And now we also have Google to thank for the next step in MTM, mobile telecommunication marketing.Labels: Google, Marketing, new media
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