Speculation is that Google will finally come out with a mobile phone in mid 2008. It will house a variety of Google’s current online services as well as allowing independent developers to create applications and software add ons. This is as reported by The Wall Street Journal.
Their primary goal is to make the apps and its services as easy to access to mobile phones as they are to personal home based computers. It appears Google plans to extend its advertising business to mobile wireless devices. It’s possible that Google may announce the mobile within weeks, according to the WSJ.
At one point it was thought that Google may manufacture its own mobile phone hardware themselves, but now the forerunner seems to be LG Electronics out of South Korea. Google is however expected to develop the mobile software themselves.
Google wants to replicate its success on PC based advertising and use it on their mobile phones. They believe that mobile based advertising will be the next new frontier to exploit as users are spending more time on the Internet using their mobiles.
On a worldwide basis, mobile ads is expected to reach US$1.5 billion this year alone and grow to over $11 billion by 2011, this is according to Informa Telecoms & Media.
The biggest question is how and who will Google partner with as their wireless carrier.
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