The future growth of the Internet lies in the hands of mobile phone users, not computers, according to Google Vice President Vinton Cerf. Speaking in Bangalore, India this morning, Cerf said to reporters that while the Internet population has exploded from 50 million to 1.1 billion since 1997, it still only reaches a sixth of the world's population.
The only way to reach the remaining 5.5 billion people on the planet will be to make it more affordable to access the Internet, according to Cerf. Internet access via mobile phone has been slowly gaining momentum in developed countries—over 50 percent of those surveyed toward the end of 2005 had used at least one data service on their phones. However, such mobile access could be the key to quickly getting large populations in developing countries online due of the marginal cost of a mobile phone compared to a computer.
Cerf pointed out in his presentation that there are 2.5 billion mobile phone users worldwide so far, with India alone adding seven million more every month. "The mobile phone has become an important factor in the Internet revolution," he said. Google, which has a research and development facility in Bangalore, hopes to expand its services in countries like India for this reason and is looking to focus more of its services on language and culture in order to reach more of India's 1-billion-and-counting population, only 40 million of which are currently online.
Meanwhile, cell carriers have been putting pressure on Google for their mobile services lately, arguing that Google's apps use too much precious bandwidth (not to mention that Google's apps often compete with the cell companies own offerings). Customers have been making use of Google Local for Mobile to access maps and traffic information, as well as checking Gmail on their phones and make use of Google's mobile search page. If service providers keep trying to wedge themselves in between various services and their customers, then it may present a challenge for companies like Google who are looking to expand exponentially in developing countries.
No comments:
Post a Comment