The Big Mobile Revolution
Posted: February 18, 2011 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment »The Big Mobile Revolution
It has been well reported that, in a brief guest article for the Harvard Business Review entitled “preparing for the big mobile revolution” Google CEO Eric Schmidt laid out three priorities for the company: focusing on developing fast LTE networks; pushing the development of NFC-based “mobile money” and, increasing the availability of inexpensive smartphones in the poorest parts of the world.
This blog has a post on NFC in the works as it seems all the players are working on an NFC strategy.
But, it isn’t quite clear from the article how Google will help with LTE development unless they commit to building out a competitive network to the operators. We need some more information guys!
However, Schmidt’s vision of “literally a billion people getting inexpensive, browser-based touchscreen phones over the next few years.” is pretty achievable. And he can comfortably say that because Android is at the forefront of that drive because the software is free.
The LG’s Optimus line has already made Android more affordable for smartphone buyers on a limited budget and analysts are predicting Android phones will sell at unsubsidized prices under $100 in the US. This is a good start but the really interesting stuff is happening in India and China where the markets are significantly bigger.
Huawei Technologies and ZTE Corp are rolling out Google-powered phones that could be sold by carriers for an unsubsidized cost of as little as $50. And in case you doubt the ability of these companies to step up, it was just announced by IDC that ZTE just got the world’s No. 4 handset spot in the fourth quarter, pushing Apple down to No. 5 and RIM out of the list of top five handset makers altogether.
Indian manufacturer Intex says that it’ll have an Android based handset on the market next month for around $120. That includes a touchscreen and a 3.2 megapixel camera.
Cheap (and soon to be cheaper) prices combined with the potential market size of just those two countries quickly demonstrates how Google’s confidence is not misplaced. Now, about the LTE claim…
