Exec Confirms Google Phone

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."

why assume it's google's phone?

[flynt]

why can't the phone they're working on be the iphone? also, i wouldn't say the "head of google in portugal" making an off-handed comment really counts as "publicizing" it.

Google functionality

[Sunburnt]

Does this mean that, in an unfamiliar town, I can just type "pizza," hit "I Feel Lucky," and be connected with the most popular pizza joint in town based on call volume?

Really, I'm not being entirely sarcastic here. I wind up in strange places, and this feature would be more helpful than calling 411. Now, how to implement...

Re:oh jolly be golly gosh willakers!

[Bearhouse]

I've got Google maps on my phone - does not replace the GPS but useful in emergency. Perhaps the real interest here is the growing development of applications based around the modern cellphone's unique features: 1. Nearly everyone has at least one, (increasingly in 'third world' countries too), and carries it all the time. 2. It's increasingly a computer, (mail, calendar..) and media-player as well as a communications device. 3. It can be located, (but this is illegal in most countries). Today, people are watching TV on their phones and using them as payment devices. Organisations are buying tracking information from the phone companies (individual's information supposedly not available), in order to better understand ppultion concentration and movement. See here http://reality.media.mit.edu/ [mit.edu] for example. Why would Google NOT be interested in getting into this stuff?

Re:Hate to break it to ya...

[teknopurge]

i think the OPs point was that since google and apple have become so buddy-buddy, odds are good that google's resources are working on apps for the iPhone, pehaps a branding of it.

the industry needs this

[nanosquid]

Whatever this is, it's gotta be better than Windows Mobile, Palm, Symbian, or iPhone.

Why is it better than iPhone you ask? Because, apart from being one of the most restrictive and proprietary phones around, the iPhone has the outmoded usage model that the user wants to tie his phone to some desktop machine. I don't want to sync with a desktop, I want to sync with a network service.

Re:Magical Google phone?

[cgenman]

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.

A phone knows where you are (through cell-tower triangulation).

Google knows, through your searches, what you're looking for.

Let's say you've been running searches for a few night on how to get a book published. Later that week, an SMS ad alerts you to the presence of a corporate training center that you happen to be walking by.

Or get a little more creative. Google knows you contact someone through g-mail and orkut a lot. The gPhone knows that they visit a particular resturant on a regular basis. The next time you walk by this resturant, that resturant sends you a targeted message letting you know that your friend is there.

Or there is a book exerpt you've looked up online. When you walk by a Barnes 'n Noble, google checks the local stock with them, then lets you know the price.

Or maybe google has figured out your anniversary date through a combination of Gmail and google calendar. When you walk by a Zales, the sales associates are alerted to your upcoming event, and hops out of the store to sell you up.

With databases of information about what people write about in their Gmails, their searches, their maps, books they've looked up, friends on the various systems, their blogs, their IM's, and whatever other data google desktop collects, you can be sure that they have a lot more targeted information at hand than any other advertiser could dream of, and can use it more creatively.

Re:Best Feature Evar

[walt-sjc]

If I'm on the go and in the mood for Pizza, it would be cool to not only find a pizza place and order (like Jobs with the iphone / starbucks demo), but if google displayed a couple ads from the nearest pizza place that showed the specials, or offered me a 10% discount, then it would be worth it.

IMHO, I would like to see some kind of WiMAX / VoIP phone come to market. The traditional cell phone market / technology sucks. For metropolitan areas, this should be viable. If I'm in the middle of nowhere, I can always use one of the prepaid phones, and setup my voip service to forward to it if my gPhone is not reachable (or maybe the gPhone falls back to old-GSM mode...)