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Google announced their own phone today. Analysts and pundits are falling over themselves trying to figure out what Google’s ‘killer angle’ is.

The general consensus is that it’s openness i.e. you aren’t tied to a provider.

That makes zero sense – Google is not going to keep strengthening wireless providers.

The real paradigm shift is making voice calling free

What are the different elements you would need to have free voice calling?

1. A phone you can get without a contract.
2. The main infrastructure i.e. optical fiber, dark fiber etc.
3. The last step from optical fiber to user i.e. WiFi or phone lines to the home or cellular towers.

Google just introduced the phone. That leaves just the optical fiber and the WiFi part.

Google already has most of the network set up – both Optical Fiber and WiFi

People don’t really realize how much Google has invested into network infrastructure and how close it’s gotten to actually being a full-fledged network -

1. Google has invested in two undersea Internet cable projects (intra-Asia Unity Cable, Japan to US cable) and is planning another one (an extension of the Unity cable to Africa). 
2. Google bought up a lot of dark fiber in the US.  VoIP news points out that one possibility is a Google branded Telecom network.  
3. Google invested $500 million in ClearWire. TechCrunch has a good article explaining why.
4. Google tried to buy wireless spectrum – Its bid for $4.6 billion lost out to Verizon. However, it did win some ‘openness’ concessions. 
5. It’s put a lot of effort into the concept of Net Neutrality.
6. It’s put a lot of effort into WiFi projects like the one in San Francisco.

Projects like the Minneapolis WiFi project are exactly what Google needs to link up to its dark fiber and undersea cables and create a complete network infrastructure.

At that point Google Phones and Android Phones join in and you have the possibility of complete control of the mobile space.

Free Voice Calling will be the means to lock in Mobile Commerce

Google will take these steps -

1. Get enough branding and experience in mobile and most importantly get enough data on user behavior.
2. Get its infrastructure into place.  
3. Turn on free voice calling and very cheap data plans.

We’re talking $10-$20 unlimited data with free voice calling to anywhere.

There are dual reasons to go after mobile -

1. VoIP has grown the most out of any space in the last decade. VoIP has grown much, much more than even Search. It’s because there is so much revenue – data plans, voice plans, texting plans - and so many inefficiencies.  
2. There’s a chance search revenue moves to mobile. Google, at this point, has very little control of mobile.

Google is well aware of both the opportunity to take over existing mobile revenue and the risk of losing search in the mobile space.

Google has put a ton of effort into Mobile

Google is doing so many things to try to control the mobile net -

1. Google is the default search provider for Sprint.
2. Google offered $100 million a year to Verizon to make Google Search the default (it still lost out Verizon’s network).
3. Released Android for cellphones and Chrome for netbooks.
4. It’s own cellphone.
5. Advertising mobile related products on the main Google home page – something it hardly ever does.
6. Bought AdMob, the top iPhone and mobile advertising company, for $750 million. Apple bought Quattro wireless, a competitor, for $250 million.

Google is trying to ensure Google Search is the default mobile search option and that a cut of the money spent in mobile goes to Google.

However, if you continue to think along these lines – Why stop at mobile commerce? Why not get an iron-grip on all commerce?

The end goal is an alternate Internet – GoogleNet

What’s the best way to ensure ‘openness’ as far as Google is concerned?

To set-up an alternate Internet.

Seriously – If you were earning $20-$30 billion a year and the underlying infrastructure was undependable your first thoughts would be to make the infrastructure something you control.

Google’s various moves seem haphazard and fall under different broad umbrellas i.e.

1. Making the web faster.
2. Making web applications richer. 
3. Keeping things open.
4. Giving users more options.
5. Making advertising more effective and closer to what users want.

However, the real underlying drift is exceedingly simple – create a new Internet that gives Google a fair (or more than fair) chance.  

It doesn’t take much effort to look beyond the seemingly haphazard moves and the red herrings of openness and fairness.

Google has been making enemies with pretty much every company - Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Verizon, AT&T, cellphone companies. It’s not because Google is careless, just that Google’s plans are so big that eventually every single other company in the world will either be Google’s enemy or a dependent ally.

Filed under: Reality Tagged: | google's strategy, googlenet