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Exec Confirms Google Phone

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the let-the-battle-begin dept.

cyberianpan writes "The head of Google in Spain and Portugal has confirmed that Google is working on a mobile phone. "Some of the time the engineers are dedicated to developing a mobile phone," This could be the 20% free time development but publicizing that would be stupid. Obviously this phone could link in with Google Earth/Maps... it is a marketers dream for targeted advertising."

5 of 120 comments (clear)

  1. Magical Google phone? by Applekid · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "... it is a marketers dream for targeted advertising."

    How is that different than other phones? I've heard lots of bells and whistles over the years about phones being a portal to direct advertising and that I'd get ads pushed to my phone constantly and, at least myself and my circle of contacts, it's. just. not. happening.

    I don't see what would make Google phone more viable for direct marketing than iPhone or a regular cell that can run Google Maps mobile on it already.

    I'd be more concerned with a Google phone dropping calls when you start talking about stuff the Chinese government would consider corrupting influences on society.

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    More Twoson than Cupertino
    1. Re:Magical Google phone? by bheer · · Score: 4, Insightful

      > I get SMS spam from Sprint just about every other day

      SMS ads are untargeted and largely provoke negative reactions. Sounds familiar to banner ads? Google's business model is all about creating advertising models that don't piss users off, and they've succeeded on the web. I'm not a huge Google fan (I don't buy their "don't be evil" kool-aid) but I'd put money that if anyone makes mobile advertising work, it'd be Google.

      --
      Go somewhere random
  2. Best Feature Evar by whisper_jeff · · Score: 3, Insightful

    "... it is a marketers dream for targeted advertising."

    Yeah. Because the ability to have people send you more unwanted advertising is a feature everyone looks for when buying a new phone.

  3. Ties you to their services, gives them your info by The+Amazing+Fish+Boy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If it had GPS, it could know where you are, and display advertisements accordingly. This could just be the splash screen on your phone. Also, you could press "Food" or enter "pizza" and it would show you restaurants in the area, maybe even give you directions. Maybe you could even set it to ring a certain way when you're near a good restaurant.

    Tying you to their other products (Gmail, Picasa) will also bring them ad revenue. It could also legitimate Google's services for the Blackberry crowd. I think that like iPhone for Apple, this would fill the gap for Google's PDA.

    And I imagine contact information is worth a lot to them. Who's in your address book, who you're calling, when you call people, when you're phone is on/off, etc. Not to mention if there's GPS, they'd know where you go during the day.

  4. Why is this news?? by 8127972 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    (other than the fact it's about Google)

    It didn't come from Larry Page and Sergey Brin or anybody like that. For all we know, this statement may just be some sort of FUD meant to scare people who put out other smart phones (Read: Microsoft, Palm, etc.).

    I'll wait for some sort of "official" announcement.

    --
    This is my opinion. To make sure you don't steal it, it's covered by the DMCA.