Monday, February 4th, 2008 |
It shouldn’t come as a surprise to readers that the folks over at Google might not be totally stoked on the potential merger of Microsoft and Yahoo!. If you weren’t sure where the company stood on the issue, you can now get clued in thanks to a post on the official Google Blog earlier today. David Drummond, senior VP of corporate development (and the company’s chief legal officer) says that he worries the acquisition of the internet portal by a company that has “frequently sought to establish proprietary monopolies” could “extend unfair practices from browsers and operating systems to the internet.” His concern centers around the possibility that the combination of the two monoliths could “unfairly limit the ability of consumers to freely access competitors’ email, IM, and web-based services.” Sure, Google has more than a little stake in seeing fair play on the net (gotta keep those ad revenues up), but this is serious food for thought nonetheless.
Update: It looks like the war of words is really starting to heat up. Brad Smith, general counsel for Microsoft, has issued his own little statement here, telling us that Google holds far more marketshare when it comes to internet searching than a combined Microsoft and Yahoo! possibly could, and then going on to explain that the Redmond giant is “committed to openness, innovation, and the protection of privacy.” Uh, whatever you say Brad.
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Sunday, November 18th, 2007 |
Openwave systems can look forward to running a leaner operation starting now, as Microsoft has officially agreed to lift its Musiwave subsidiary off of its hands for a cool $50 million. Granted, only $46 million of that will actually hit Openwave’s bank account, as the other $4 million will be debt that Microsoft will assume. Three days prior to this announcement, the two firms made known that they were in exclusive talks, and apparently, 72 hours was enough time for Redmond to pull the trigger. Reportedly, the purchase will give Microsoft access to valuable relationships with “music labels, device makers and mobile operators that deliver digital entertainment to consumers,” but what exactly the firm plans to do with its new acquisition remains to be seen.
[Via mocoNews]
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Monday, November 5th, 2007 |
Google today unveiled a new software platform and a broad alliance of mobile handset makers and communications companies in a bid to accelerate the slow development of the mobile internet.
Engineers have been working on the software for three years, dating back to a Silicon Valley startup called Android Inc. that Google acquired in 2005. The mobile software still bears the Android name in acknowledgment of its heritage.
Android is designed to make it easier for developers to create mobile applications that run on many different handsets. At the moment, mobile technology is fragmented, relying on a several different operating systems and development environments. That has reduced the potential market for developers creating games, entertainment or other services for any one handset.
The alliance members come from the telecom and wireless software industries. Many of them are second-tier players that Google hopes will use the phone technology to build devices that can challenge the likes of Nokia, Apple and Verizon Wireless.
The list of wireless carriers that have agreed to provide service for the Google-powered phone in the United States include Sprint Nextel and Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile in the United States. China Mobile, Telefonica in Spain and Telecom Italia are among the carriers that have signed on to provide service outside the United States.
They are among a Google-led group of 34 companies that have formed the Open Handset Alliance. Other key players include major chip makers like Intel, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, Broadcom and Nvidia.
What Google gets in return is more real estate for selling ads. Ninety-nine percent of Google’s revenues come from ads, either the ones it puts next to free Internet-based services like search and email, or through syndication on third-party Web pages. The bigger the Internet gets, Google executives figure, the more pages there are for ads and the more people will need search (with more ads) to find anything.
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Sunday, November 4th, 2007 |
You can’t believe everything you read and rumors are just rumors. So what can we expect from Google tomorrow? Will it just be an OS or will there be an actual gPhone? Are you excited for the Google OS? Or are you too enamored with your stupid precious iFones to care?
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