Google aims for the next platform

Imagine the inhabitants of Earth in 100 years. They have spoiled the planet beyond use. They need to move, all 20 billion of them.
The effort to jump the ship of mother Earth involves finding a new planet, building a ship and making the trip, and then settling in.
Anticipating the end of the PC revolution, Google has begun the first phase of the move. Mobile is the new planet, and Android is the spaceship.
Google may be in the doldrums but they have a history of bouncing back. While GOOG is down $150 this year, they are in investment mode. Mobile is around the corner, and as Android phones pump out into the market, GOOG is quietly seizing a platform of global breadth. While the Nexus One experiment hasn't hit, that was simply a marketing failure.  It's a great little phone. Android on the other hand, is aiming for world dominance and has been extremely well packaged so far, positioned as a techies revolt and user friendly interface. It's now the fastest selling mobile OS worldwide.
Google has to wait to reap the rewards of this platform. There's work to be done, specifically aggregating, processing and remixing location- and behaviorial-based data into insights for each user.
In the Journal today, Eric Schmidt offers a wide open view of Google's new strategy.  He's appealing to investors to jump on the new ship. Says Eric:
' "In general in technology," he says, "if you own a platform that's valuable, you can monetize it." Example: Google is obliged to share with Apple search revenue generated by iPhone users. On Android, Google gets to keep 100%. That difference alone, says Mr. Schmidt, is more than enough to foot the bill for Android's continued development." '
And, he takes another swipe at the Great American Newspaper:
'"The only way the problem [of insufficient revenue for news gathering] is going to be solved is by increasing monetization, and the only way I know of to increase monetization is through targeted ads. That's our business."'
The interview is here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704901104575423294099527212.html







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