It has been a lot written about the new “Google Phone”, or the “Superphone” or even the “iPhone-Killer”. But nothing seems to be applicable and the world media/IT-experts are missing the wow-effect, the special feature that would come with the yesterday introduced “Nexus One”. But it is not all about introducing the new phone – it is about introducing a new distribution channel for mobile phones, rather say a “new URL”. Google itself are even pushing that message (via their official blog) which shows the actual case Google is building: Making Google Services independent from Mobile Network Operators (MNO) and their positioning of Android. Furthermore Google wants to push OEMs (HTC is doing the best job so far) to really focus on integrating Android to their devices perfectly by giving the OEMs the possibility to higher their total sales number via a new popular store. This is the second biggest step from Google supporting Android by its strong brand after introducing the G1 in 2008.
Ars Technica is describing the implication for the MNOs in the US (here) coursed by the new “URL”, but it will also influence the whole mobile market worldwide. The question is now which brand awareness is going to succed?
a) The customer wants to buy a Google Phone, independent from any MNO
b) The customer wants to buy an Android phone with any MNO branding with services from Google
In the long term the MNOs will only survive if they have services to offer that can compete or add value to the popular mobile Google Services (Gmail, Navigation etc.) because otherwise customer will only buy access from the MNOs. The cellphone shopping market will then take place in other stores with big brand value (Apple, Google etc.).
