Google's Nexus One phone really puzzles me. It makes all the technological sense in the world but it seems like a business model disaster. From one hand, Google is cannibalizing its' own market: two months ago the Motorola Droid was the hottest thing and now its' junk. From the other hand: it does not work tightly with the Telcos like Apple and sells the device unlocked.
So how does Google plan to monetize Android and Nexus One?
My guess is that Google will just keep on cultivating its' major revenue stream: advertising.
The answer is tucked inside Google Voice (GV). The Android is tightly integrated with the service. Some analysts believe VoIP services will replace the conventional voice services of Telcos. Apple is fighting it, banning VoIP applications from using 3G networks on the iPhone and keeping on good terms with the operators. Google is strongly promoting it through Android.
Think about it: GV has a cool feature of transforming your voice mail into text. The whole "speech to text" seems to take center stage in the latest Android versions, enabling "speaking into text boxes". How long will it take for Google to start eavesdropping on your conversations and offer you related services?
Here's a not too unrealistic scenario: your wife will call you and ask you to buy some wine on your way home. Boom! You get a text message with a special offer from a nearby store. You tell your phone "make it so" and the location is added automatically to your Google Maps so you can easily get there and SHOP.
If your reaction is: "no way, that's way too intrusive even for the big G", I just want to divert your attention to a somewhat obscure and hardly used service called Gmail. Yes, Gmail serves ads in the context of your email. Yes, there was a huge debate about it when the service first came out and there were many naysayers. That didn't stop it from becoming one of the most popular mail service today.
What's the difference between reading your email and listening to your conversations? It is pretty much the same. Legally, there might be an issue here, as this might be classified as "phone tapping". Read the fine print in the GV user agreement. You might just be giving them permission to do that anyway.
PS. It all becomes in another page in the dossier Google holds on all of us, but let's leave the conspiracy theories for another post.
