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Google Shows Off Ad-Supported Cell Phone
taoman1 writes "Today Google showed off a ad-supported cellphone that the company plans to offer for free to interested parties. The product could reach the marketplace within a year, and will offer Google search, email, and a web browser. 'The move would echo another recent product launched by a phone industry outsider, Apple Inc.'s iPhone. But Google's product would draw its revenue from a sharply different source, relying on commercial advertising dollars instead of the sticker price of at least US$499 for an iPhone and $60 per month for the AT&T Inc. service plan. Negotiating the fairest way to split those advertising revenues with service providers could be a big hurdle for Google, one analyst said. Another problem is the potential that consumers could be scared off by the prospect of listening to advertisements before being able to make phone calls, said Jeff Kagan, a wireless and telecommunications industry analyst in Atlanta.'"
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People do that with their television and radio, don't they ? And yet for some of them, their lives are pointless without the TV or radio, just as for many others their lives are pointless without the telephone. Imagine an audio ad of "Girls Gone Wild" before calling your mother.
I see -nowhere- that Google has said these advertisements will be audible or will be played before a call. That's just FUD by the article writer. Until Google has said -anything- we don't know what their plans are.
In fact, Google has not even said the phones WILL be ad-revenue supported, as far as I can tell. There's a couple quotes from Google on there, but they only deal with Google apps on the phones, not the calling plans.
"If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you." - DM
The medium is the message. A big goal is location awareness. I doubt there will be audio advertising. More likely if you turn the phone on there will be a popup of a nearby business with a special offer or something. Or if you use data functions, there'll be targetted ads. GIS, you know.
Keep in mind they are bidding up that huge chunk of spectrum coming open soon and if they can snag some of it this could work pretty easily. Start small with a few towers in major markets, preferably near some dark fibre or a NOC they already have in place. Put their sales force to work and cross market to local businesses already using adwords. Lease airtime from other providers in the meantime, under the new regulations they have to provide a quality connection. They have plenty of cash to burn through and I think it would quickly prove itself one way or the other. Obviously offer the chance to "buy up" your service to remove some of the ads. But really try to make the ads real "content". Google has done a good job making ads "content" that actually provide value. In this case, let the consumer know that there's a nearby business offering a special. Don't spam the phone with popups for downloadable ringtones or phone sex lines.
Cool! Amazing Toys.
I couldn't disagree more. The masses *love* ads. People pay to wear ads on their clothes. People pay to advertise their car's brands on their cars. People pay a large sum of money to their cable/satellite company every month to watch ads. People willingly sit through ads before a movie that they paid for. There are so many idiots out there who PAY to consume advertising, that I guarantee people are NOT fed up with advertising.
Personally, I'm fed up with ads, but I see no sign that regular people are fed up with advertising.
I don't respond to AC's.
Agreed. Google, to date, has proven to be quite effective at dishing out ads that don't negatively affect me. I'm not inundated with doubleclick monkey shooting win IPOD ads, rather I get ads based on somethings I'm writing about in email, searched for, or reading about.
Google has a chance to pioneer "effective" advertising, of the type that is extremely context sensual - enough so that it wouldn't arguably be a nuisance to most people. Try this: Go to google and search for "japan". Then search for "vacation". Boom - it puts up small ads about vacations to japan. Convenient? Yes. Obtrusive? Hardly. Innovative? Absolutely. Relevant? Likely.
There are a hundred things, I, as a consumer, would love to see ads on *right now*, but not the old school ads - the new kind. The kind that advertise there's a new chinese restaraurant with 5 star ratings 1.4 miles from my current location. Or the kind that let me know there's a new used game store 3 miles from me that pays more than gamestop for trade ins and sells them for less. Or the kind that say there's a new book at amazon with 5 star ratings on PHP OO when I'm bitching about PHP's OO in IM. There are zillions of these kinds of examples, and if google pioneers it, I will gladly welcome the demise of the doubleclick assault.
They wouldn't be paying attention if they were on the phone either. Maybe verizon, sprint and at&t shouldn't be able to offer cell phone service either because it could end up killing someone.
GM, Ford, Honda and others shouldn't be able to sell cars because they could be used to kill someone.
KFC, McDonald's, Wendy's, Taco Bell,etc shouldn't be able to sell fast food because it could kill people.
It's the responsibility of the consumer to understand the consequences of what they do, as well as far any laws put into effect by their state. Listening to an ad or listening to their friend, they aren't paying as much attention on the road...