September 05, 2007 | Wednesday
Google mobile activity heats up
By Jackie Danicki - Blogger in News |Online Sales |Search Engines |Google |Search Technology
When it comes to Google and telecoms, things are getting very interesting. The stories have everything: intrigue, the promise of a battle with multiple competitors, and even a little tabloid-esque scandal at the highest level of the company.
First, it has been revealed that Google last year filed for a patent on a mobile payments system, Gpay. Details of the patent reveal that the technology is a “computer-implemented method of effectuating an electronic online payment”. Considering the battle that Ebay’s PayPal has been having with the search giant over Google Checkout, this may prompt accelerated mobile shopping innovation at Ebay.
But Ebay isn’t the only company likely to be affected by this development. As NMA‘s Will Cooper notes:
Last month Microsoft boss Bill Gates criticised Google for entering the mobile space, saying that it didn’t have a good track record for products away from its search base. Last week Microsoft and Nokia brokered a deal that would see Windows Live content and applications available on handsets.
Speculation is still rife about precisely what Google intends to do in the mobile space, with industry observers even wondering if the fabled GooglePhone as a hardware device is really in development. Owen Thomas seems to speak for many analysts when he says:
[T]he need for any GooglePhone escapes me; Google should be building services that work on any phone, no matter who makes it or what [operating system] it runs. At best, the GooglePhone project, I believe, is a big stick Google will use to threaten phonemakers and wireless carriers into carrying its search engine and applications.
Finally, the promised scandal, as also reported by Thomas: It is alleged that (married) Google CEO Eric Schmidt has given his fiancée the job of heading up PR for GooglePhone. Schmidt and his wife have reportedly been separated for a while now, so the relationship itself is not quite the shocking bit of dirty linen that some commentators might hope it to be. But installing a seemingly unqualified ‘friend’ into such a pivotal role just may be.
Whatever happens, mobile is bound to be a huge new frontier for Google. With Britons said to be ”more attached to their mobile phones than their pets” and 82 billion minutes spent on UK mobiles in 2006, this is one market that holds massive potential for those companies which can make their products and services indispensible. No scandal necessary - mobile is an area to watch.
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