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Google Envisions Free Cell Phones For All
Salvance writes "Google's CEO Eric Schmidt envisions a day when all cell phones are free if the user agrees to watch targeted ads. While he provides no specific plans for Google to give away phones, the implication is that he expects such moves in the future given Google's current pilot successes with delivering text ads on phones." From the article: "Schmidt also said his company was working on how to allow users to maintain basic control of their personal data. Currently, Google stores consumer data on hundreds of thousands of its own computers in order to provide additional services to individual users. The company is looking to allow consumers to export their Web search history or e-mail archives and move them to other sites, if they so choose."
Right now,phone calls don't cost much. With all the competitive pressures they'll just come down. Let's say your life is worth $60/hour or $1/minute. How much of your life are you prepared to throw away to get that free phone call?
Engineering is the art of compromise.
I could be wrong, but it seems this only means that you would get the device for "free," not the service. This is hardly a revolutionary idea; cellphone providers have been "giving" away devices for free (along with those nasty catch-22's) for ages.
This is not to say I'd go long with this anyway. I'd be very annoyed if my phone beeped every 10 minutes, only to discover that I've received an advertisement.
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Am I the only person who hates advertisements? I don't want to see ads while I browse the internet. I don't want to see ads while I'm watching movies or TV. I don't want to hear ads on the radio. And I sure as hell don't want ads on my cell phone.
Charge me for your product or service, then leave me the fuck alone.
Maybe not
It didn't work with landline phone and it won't work with cell phones!
Maybe Computers will never be as intelligent as Humans.
For sure they won't ever become so stupid. [VR-1988]
Which reveals in stark relief what sensible people have been saying for a while - Google isn't a search company, or a technology company - it's an advertising agency.
It's not possible to watch ads 24/7. Sorry folks we simply can't do it. Seems to be a great frustriation to advertisers that we don't want to watch their ads all bloody day. After a while you just shut down. CNN is driving me nuts lately with the Head On commercials. They even tried to make a joke of how obnoxious they are. Hate to break it to them but I switch the channel everytime they come on. The scary thing is if I try to switch to the other CNN channel half the time there's one running there too. I swear the Clockwork Orange eyes pried open senerio is an advertisers wet dream. You want advertising to be more effective? How about less of it. People used to watch commercials or at least let them run. I hit mute or switch the channel everytime so it went from say ten minutes plus an hour to zero exposure for me. How effective are your commercials when no one will watch them or worse yet they switch the channel?
It's relatively easy when the medium is passive, like TV.
The next time your phone rings, however, try not answering. You'll reflexively pick it up anyway. You've been programmed to.
This has the potential to be astonishingly annoying to people like me, who use their cell phones for business and are acclimated to the idea that when the phone rings, it's important.
Am I part of the core demographic for Swedish Fish?
Not everything can be financed buy advertising. Eventually you're going to have to advertise a product that separates the end user from his pennies.
I suspect that the person who makes this product that people are willing to spend money on is going to make a killing.
I don't watch TV partly because of the ads. I hate ads. I don't want to consume. I don't want to WANT to consume!
Having Stuff be supported by ads is incredibly annoying. I use google instead of say... MSN(ha!) because I don't want my bandwidth sucked up by annoying ads, and I don't want to be clobbered over the head with pictures of pretty people. Frell That. And when I'm just searching, I don't look at the google ads at all. Sure, subliminals count for something... Sigh.
When I do shop, I use sometimes use google (when I don't go directly to a website I know and trust) though. Their ads are less annoying and intrusive. They grate less on my nerves. It's simple. When I want to shop, I'll go FIND the ads. They don't need to find me. Screw the impulse buy!
So, by being less annoying, google gets me to shop through them. Sometimes.
Thank the gods for Adblock and Firefox, or I'd have to browse in Lynx.
I've read Snow Crash. I've read The Selfish Gene. My mental anti-viral software is loaded.
Oh gods, I'm becoming a Luddite.
-T, who will always pay to avoid ads or go without.
While people don't want advertising, I would argue that people prefer advertising to paying for the service themselves.
On this side of the pond you have choices:
TV: There are a few channels without commercials, but very few, some people use DVRs and fast forward through them. I don't know that I agree with you on the VCR, I myself have never heard about somebody recording a show onto a tape just to get through the commercials (though I have known of people who recorded a movie and while doing so, edited out the commercials).
Radio: There is your standard AM/FM, supported by advertisers generally. Or you could pay for XM/Sirius. To me, I'll save the $10/mo and when advertising comes on, either suffer through it, or hit the next preset on my radio.
Magazines and Newspapers: These are almost completely supported by advertising revenue, and since companies are still advertising in them, somebody must be looking at it. And there is a difference, at least when it comes to newspapers: location. I am much more tolerant of local advertising (a new restaurant in my town, or a specialty shop that I hadn't noticed before) than I am of other advertising.
Internet: Yes, there is ad-blocking software out there, but how many people, not of the slashdot demographic use it? Nobody I know uses it. People definately get annoyed at some ads (pop-up/pop-under, flash, ones that take control of the mouse), but the text, or even banner ads, aren't hated as much in the real world as they are on slashdot.
I think if you broke it down and told people that in order to see their TV shows, listen to their radio stations, surf their websites, they'd either have to pay (even more) for cable/sat, spend $10 a month on sat radio and either subscribe or purchase products from every website they visit, they'll gladly accept the ads.
-dave
/., where "Apple and Google provide Iran with nukes" will be refuted with "But Microsoft is a convicted monopolist"
CNN is driving me nuts lately with the Head On commercials. They even tried to make a joke of how obnoxious they are. Hate to break it to them but I switch the channel everytime they come on.
But you are now familiar with "Head On" as a brand. The average consumer is now far more likely to select Head On instead of some equally useless, but less familiar generic homeopathic headache remedy. I would guess that very few American consumers are even smart enough to research their headache remedy purchases in the first place (a quick Wikipedia search reveals the snake-oil nature of Head On)
Wasn't that the goal in the first place? Advertising works far better than anyone is willing to admit.
A while ago my mother was complaining about how her vacuum cleaner didn't suck anymore. (har). Well, she said she had heard good things about the Oreck line of vacuum cleaners. She just might have bought one of those overpriced pieces of junk, had I not been there to google for "Oreck reviews" and see what some actual real people thought about them. It turns out her preference was entirely due to constant exposure to Oreck's often lengthy advertisements and infomercials, despite the fact that she had not been paying conscious attention to them all these years.
Advertising works, and it ain't just about click-through. It's all about brand awareness and plain old brainwashing.
it's a blue bright blue Saturday hey hey