Why Google Wants a Phone

I was just reading an article over on the Washington Post that asks the question, “Why would Google want a phone?” The piece almost makes it seem like it is a mistake for Google to move into the already crowded mobile phone industry.

Commentaries have been mostly about rumors, and they lack a good motive for such a move. Google makes software, not hardware, and rumors that it was developing a PC a few years back turned out to be wrong–it was simply making software for PCs.

I decided to answer the question here and to make a long story short, Google wants a phone simply because it allows them to move from being the middle-man in the content delivery system to just being the man.


When you think about it, Google supplies the content in the case of YouTube for millions of people watching videos and provides the mechanism, Google’s index, to find almost all other content. They are the the gate keeper between the content you want and the device that you get it on. If Google builds the content delivery system and makes it cheap, well, that is the Golden Goose.

Google Phone

Written by Robb Dunewood on March 20th, 2007 with 5 comments.
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5 comments

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Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com Rich Wagner
#1. March 20th, 2007, at 8:53 AM.

I kind of see your point but don’t you think that other phone manufacturers will stop allowing google to run their applications on their phones if they see Google as a competitor?

Google might do better at being the middle man for everyone as compared to just the man on their own device.

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com Robb Dunewood
#2. March 20th, 2007, at 9:00 AM.

Good points Rich, however, I believe that Google is so big that they can be both friend and competitor at the same time. Right now I have 5 free applications from Google on my BlackBerry, three of which I use everyday, Google Talk, Google Search, and GMail. It would make no sense for RIM to prevent me from using these tools simply because Google is making a device.

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com Amit
#3. March 20th, 2007, at 10:05 AM.

Robb,

Why use the gmail client when Gmail already supports Push through the BlackBerry Internet Service? Google Talk is one of my most used BlackBerry applications too.

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com Phreqd
#4. March 21st, 2007, at 10:00 PM.

Google has stated that they will not be making a phone and it’s been all rumours. So this whole article is moot. Where do you get your information from? “Richard Kimber, Google’s South-East Asia managing director of sales and operations, says that Google is obviously investing in the software side of things, but that it has no interest in entertering the crowded handset market.”

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com sunflower
#5. March 25th, 2008, at 11:34 PM.

google is going gr8
now they want everything ..
gud

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