Google has developed a prototype cell phone that could reach markets within a year, and plans to offer consumers free subscriptions by bundling advertisements with its search engine, e-mail and Web browser software applications, according to a story of The Wall Street Journal. More info here and here.
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Sun are pretty close with Google, I wonder whether they will use JavaFX Mobile as their platform...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JavaFX_Mobile
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The interesting part will be exactly how Google chooses to integrate the ads. Remember, there were essentially two keys to Google's astonishing success as an advertising firm: targeted and unobtrusive.
First, the smartphone is a unique opportunity for data collection. People communicate their thoughts, emotions, preferences, intentions, and social ties through their phone. Especially with advanced voice recognition technology, a smartphone-based advertising platform could know almost all there is to know about the user. The privacy issues are obvious, but that's another comment.
Google does impressively well with targeted ads using predominantly your search query as input. Imagine how well they could do with all of your emails, messages, and conversations? The phone could come to know you as a personal (consumer) assistant, suggesting all manner of products and services appropriate for the time, place, and context. Oh, it's lunchtime and there's a new Mexican restaurant right around the corner. Perfect.
The targeting could be so accurate that the ads could be honestly claimed as a feature, and a valuable one at that. But they can't be annoying. So you won't get phone calls from algorithmic robot telemarketers. All ads will likely be non-blocking, in computer science terms. You'll never be made to wait while an ad is playing. This leaves a lot of room for targeted ads to generate a huge rate of high-yield impressions.
The key here is that while bandwidth costs money, the content that passes over it could be worth a lot more. Google could conceivably create an unprecedentedly effective advertising platform, driving revenue that dwarfs bandwidth costs. As long as the ads are targeted and unobtrusive, Google could provide no-charge wireless service, a slick smartphone platform, and a remarkably insightful ad system.
But there's those privacy issues...
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Given that current providers are charging a rather large amount for internet access on phones, I'm wondering how well Google having all its applications be online is going to work... Unless Google is going to also offer the internet access discounted by ads, and leave the carrier to manage the phone end of things.
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Most of use have use and expect email services to be free, very few of us actually pay for personal email use. Someone else has to pay for email servers, bandwidth and storage.
I guess if anyone has the guts to extend this to voice (overIP), it has to be Google. Kudos to them.
(just don't mention the privacy concerns)
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It's key business is pretty much unchanged. Search engines advertise sites based on users search parameters, and the google phone provides ads as well.
It's just stepping up to the next gen of ads in a networked society - this doesn't strike me as an illogical progression from the e-mail based services they offer.
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Google are going to have to do a lot to satisfy many folks over privacy before this takes off as more than a toy. I'd rather not have Google listening in to calls and texts, and if Google say they won't, then who will monitor their behaviour? I wonder when people are going to stop being so naive and accepting of this outfit. This is not just a technology issue. No matter what Google may say, the basic deal here is that you are selling them your privacy.
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That ship had sailed years ago. Store cards / club card schemes monitor customers shopping habits. Banks monitor customers spending habits. Employers monitor staffs social habits via social networks like facebook. CCTV cameras are everywhere (particularly here in Britain). Everyday we're being observed and monitored by dozens of organisations - Google are not the first and by no means the last. It's just their company size and the apparent transparency in which they use their data (e.g. personalised adverts) that scare people.
The only way to protect your privacy is to close your bank accounts, cancel your phone lines and live in a cave - and even then the US will probably be watching you from space incase you're training terrorists ;-)
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