Archive for the ‘Mobile Phones’ Category
Google moving further into the Phone Market
Google is further trying to penetrate the voice communications market by way of it’s recent acquisition of Gizmo5 in the US. Gizmo5 is an online phone company that operates an open-standards platform for Voice-over-IP phone calls that is similar to Skype’s popular platform.
In addition to the possibility of fierce competition that Google poses to Skype, it could also be threatening to some of the world’s largest telecommunications companies whose fat profits are derived from mobile communications.
Google Voice is on trial in the USA at present, and it enables the user to transfer their existing phone number onto the platform, and provides a way to unify your mobile, fixed-landline voice and Voice-over-IP into one number, providing a host of cheap and convenient options including Voicemail, cheap international calls over the internet, Conference calls, Free SMS and more.
The move positions Google as potentially one of the most cost-effective providers for phone-calls, and if the technology is successfully implemented into Google’s Android handsets, it could enable callers to benefit from substantial discounts on their mobile phone bill and provide a very compelling offering that appeals well beyond the tech-geeks who are the current demographic of owners using Google’s Android Mobile Phone handsets.
Google Voice is on trial by invite only in the USA, and invitations can be requested from http://www.google.com/googlevoice/about.html
Google Creates Mobile Platform
Google is aiming to take a slice of the Iphone market by creating it’s own software for mobile phone software platforms.
Unlike the proprietary software built by Apple for it’s custom Iphone, the Google software is to be provided for free in effort to increase adoption by mobile phone vendors on various brands of phones, and thus improve market penetration and provide an alternative to the smart and sexy apple phone accessory.
This is clearly a sign of Google’s desire to occupy the mobile space which has seen dramatic increase in usage spurred on by 3G compatible handsets and other feature rich mobile phones such as the BlackBerry and Apple Iphone which have a plethora of mobile and internet applications.
This news comes less than 2 weeks after the search giant launched it’s Google Chrome Web Browser, which aims to take a slice of the browser market on desktop computers away from the dominating Microsoft and ever popular and free Firefox web browser.
It seems Google wants their presence known wherever people are browsing or searching the internet, and whereas in the past Google was associated with search, it seems Google is now aiming to be synonymous with the web in general.
It is interesting to watch as Google’s dominance of everything web-related unfolds.