This gPhone news picked up by Engadget...
This confirms my previous post. Software is the logical start for Google, and while a phone isn't out of the question for Google, the hardware business particularly mobile phones is an entirely different animal for the company. Yes, they do design their own data center servers, and their own GSA hardware, so they are not without experience in the space.
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I am pretty sure that this is not the phone that Google is going to ship, however this 'rumored to be' insider snapshot of the 'gPhone' prototype is more about the software integration with the OS at this stage, and less about the hardware enclosing it.
Either way, the working name probably won't last long given the gPhone from GlobalPhone Corporation, and the gPhone from Gnome-o-Phone, the open source Skype-like software. However, Google would by far have the most interesting use for the gPhone moniker. In fact, when you consider the power of the g-Apps that come out of Google.com, it is quite compelling to see the potential, even with just the first few 1.0 mobile phone apps from Google: search, gmail, maps, and news. The Java Midlets for gmail and maps are particularly impressive for mere 1.0 applications. Satellite imagery straight to your Samsung Blackjack on the 3G network is the bomb.
But the killer 'app' per se is not going to be any one g-App, rather it will be the seamless integration of these applications to the phone that will make them compelling. Google almost doesn't need to market a phone at all, just the platform. However, if they do, it will only be to make the integration airtight. Windows Mobile 5 is just not there yet. Apple's iPhone? Not here yet, but coming. I think iPhone will be great, and the multi-touch interface will be killer. But will iLife be too much overhead, and thus overkill for mobile productivity? Will we really want iPhoto on our phones? Definitely a nice to have either way, but hardcore productivity remains to be seen. Yes, I'm sure to buy at least one iPhone in June, but I'd really like to see what Google can do here as well especially for true mobile productivity. Their notoriously lightweight, super-fast Web apps just work. And at 1.0, they work better than most of the 4th generation WM5 apps on the Blackjack.
Best of both worlds? How about a 'native' Google mobile suite for iPhone, to include all the apps from gmail to Jot. Yes, I know, Steve already mentioned that there would be some Google integration with iPhone at launch time. But how much integration is the question, especially in light of all this gPhone speculation. iPhone seems like a more straightforward entry point for Google, but in this business nothing is straightforward and anything is possible...should be an interesting summer.
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Following my earlier post regarding Yahoo's recent restructuring efforts, Yahoo responds. The story was first illuminated by TechCrunch's posting of an internal email from their CFO. As it turns out, Yahoo wasn't too pleased with their posting-- surprise, surprise. Nonetheless, Yahoo management was quick, and kind enough to respond to my analysis of the posting here at Sixorg. In fact, I was surprised to hear from quite of few of my friends at Yahoo, all eager to get the story updated. So here's what we now know...
In my posting I stated that Tim Cadogan was heading up core search. Unfortunately that is not the case. Tim is instead heading up Search and Listings Marketplaces, which is essentially search advertising, not core search. Core Search as it turns out, resides in separate organization called the Audience Group under the leadership of Jeff Weiner as part of his Network division. "The Network division is now comprised of five areas including Search, Community & Communications, Front Doors, News & Information and Entertainment. We believe this new structure will allow us to better align our strategy with the organization and deliver on its mission to "connect people to their passions, their communities and the
world's knowledge, " states a Yahoo! spokesperson.
Jeff's been in various M&A, and search roles since Terry Semel brought him over from his Hollywood venture investment firm, Windsor Digital, where Jeff was doing M&A work for Terry's deals. Jeff is a good guy, and well liked by some hard-core senior search gurus inside Yahoo that I know personally. Yet some folks there tell me they find it curious how Jeff was nominated to run a multi-billion dollar core search group, with no search background prior to Yahoo. Remember, in the Valley, it's not always what you know, it's who you know.
Eckart Walther and Andrew Braccia head up Search within the Network division, which is a good thing. Eckart is sharp, and the real deal in core search. I enjoyed engaging with Eckart on core search innovation throughout the partnership between our companies.
Yahoo also confirms that all teams dedicated to Panama, Yahoo's new search advertising platform, are housed under Sue Decker.
The only real problem I see with this emerging structure is NOT the suggested peanut butter being spread around the company. In fact, a company of Yahoo's scale and global reach requires at least this much infrastructure and yes, bureaucracy, to continue to scale and drive growth efficiently. Yahoo faces a similar problem that many new entrants into the search and search advertising business face today. It's the chicken and egg dilemma. You'll notice that Yahoo has organized itself into a pair of Supply and Demand groups, to become better market makers for the advertising business.
But what good is an rich network of advertisers without premium inventory across the web publishers' real estate on which to run it? And conversely, what good is a rich publisher base, if the ads and ad serving technology can't stand up very well against the competition? Tim's group inside Yahoo is perhaps the most vital in this equation. However, Yahoo's creation of three peer groups in APG: Supply, Demand, and Products may very well create more challenges down the road. The "magic in the middle" as Yahoo describes it grossly underestimates the role that Panama and other core technology must play in Yahoo's latest competitive bid. It is far more germane to Yahoo's growth, than simply the glue between APG's supply and demand. Just ask Wall Street:
All of Yahoo's recent stock activity is based not on new divisions, roles, or titles, but solely on the promise of Panama, a content matching technology. Mark Morrissey has been promoted to SVP of APG Product Management, and as such plays a key role in clarifying this company wide. This is one thing that Google has not lost sight of, even amidst their mesmerizing growth.
At a bare minimum, a dotted line to core search is a must (but we all know that would just be cheating). I just can't rationalize keeping core search and core ad serving technologies in two very different parts of the organization, because of their revenue generating power. The technologies are very interdependent, and strategically linked to driving web traffic, click-throughs, and loyalty (trusted search). Remember, keyword searching isn't the only way we search anymore.
Let us not forget, the true 'Audience' as Yahoo puts it, is the end user, the web surfer, the web searcher. And this Audience is a key ingredient to the supply and demand channels for both publishers and advertisers.
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