Mobile Industry’s Biggest Enemy Is Google?
The biggest enemy of mobile as per the Mobile Asia Congress is not a mobile or anti-mobile company but an Internet search company: Google. The reason for that is Google’s launch of a free web-based mobile mapping and navigation app for Android 2.0
What that means is that the mobile companies so far are already or planning to charge subscribers for using navigation services on their mobile devices. Google, by announcing this service for free for Android, will either force mobile companies to sell mapping and navigation apps for a very nominal cost or to provide it free like Google.
At the telecom industry’s most visible event (Mobile Asia Congress 2009), GSM Association CEO Rob Conway said countering the “free” model will be mobile’s toughest challenge yet. “That’s a much different dynamic, and we have to understand how we think of our future when you’re looking at an ad-based free model.”
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