Google to Join Mobile TV Revolution

Search giant Google has stated its intent to enter the Mobile TV market. Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who has flirted with the suggestion that his company may enter the netbook market in the past, looks poised to do so this time with the Mobile TV market growing at an exceptional level.

Google would utilize its mobile phone OS Android to enable phones to act as mobile TVs. Schmidt was interviewed on American TV station PBS where he all but confirmed Google's intent on the Charlie Rose show. The Google CEO views Mobile TV as a future direction for Google's Android-based mobile phones. Schmidt was quoted as saying that within five or ten years, advances in mobile TV and mobile devices would make it possible to “watch television and watch your show routinely on these devices, in very high quality.” Schmidt has acknowledged we are entering a new age in broadcast medium and accepts Google must embrace this cultural shift if they are to continue to be potent in market force.

“In our lifetimes we're going from almost no one being able to communicate to almost everyone be able to communicate. We're also going from almost no one having any kind of information and access to libraries to virtually everyone having access to every piece of information in the world. That is an enormous accomplishment to humanity.”

While Schmidt believes online TV is part of the logical evolution of mobile devices he stated personalized programming, which allows for greater consumer-oriented advertising, was equally inevitable. This could provide a strong financial incentive for Google as a larger return for ad-buyers and will provide increased revenue stream for Google. Mobile TV is already evolving, and Google, which owns YouTube and Google Video, as well as Google News, wants to be part of that evolution. In the meantime Google continues to evolve the user experience and is believed to be working on innovative ads that use video in place of txt in Google search results.

“Our primary focus is on end-users and their needs,” said Schmidt. The approach means that Google uses its ability to deliver information or services to end-users, via unequalled visibility, in a way that maximizes value for end-users and thus ad-distribution potential for Google. Schmidt said the company's strategy can be described now as “search, ads and aps.”