Aslam Levy

Over the past weekend details have started to emerge on the purported “Google Phone” with Google officially admitting that they are “Dogfooding” the phone amongst Google staff.
The Name of the phone has been reported as the Nexus One

Some Key Features:
- Has a 1Ghz “Snap Dragon” Chip
- High-resolution OLED touchscreen
- No Physical Keyboard but possibly has Speech to Text input
- 5 Mega-pixel Camera
- Andriod 2.1 “Flan”

Google Mobile Tech Considerations:
- Google Maps now offer Turn based Directions free from Android 1.6 and higher
- Google has recently Purchased Gizmo5, a a company that provides Internet-based calling software for mobile phones and computers (Think Skype Competitor).
- The Nexus One will be more than a Cellphone, but positioned as a Data Device comprising of Text, Web and Voice Call information.
- Google does not charge consumers for its services (excluding Enterprise web app versions), They prefer to target Advertisers as their revenue stream. Could this phone possibly be free?
From the Google Website note their Business Strategy “Google generates the majority of its revenue by offering advertisers measurable, cost-effective and highly relevant advertising”

So are we looking at a Free Phone bundled with Mobile Adword suggestions? Perhaps South Africa and the emerging markets around us need this technology to lift mobile web onto the next level?
I met with Johanna from the Google Johannesburg Office earlier today. She indicated that the three key area’s in the emerging markets for Google are Finance, Travel and E-commerce. These Targets make sense to me.
The Finance Sector as Banks compete heavily for your money. The Travel Sector is huge in terms of online search. And e-commerce (especially on mobile platforms) is an emerging tech that we all expect to spike in 2010.

Image by one of Google's "Dogfooders"

What tricks does Flan have up it's sleeve?

So… affordable 5MP Smartphone with a touchscreen, connected to the “Cloud” with VoIP Call Rates? Excuse me while I change my underwear….
-A-