(MWC 2010) Google geared toward mobiles over desktops: CEO

(ATTN: ADDS quotes, details from round table in last 3 para)
By Lee Youkyung
BARCELONA, Spain, Feb. 17 (Yonhap) -- The chief of Google Inc. said Tuesday that
the Web search engine giant saw its resources deployed more toward the mobile
sector, which has become the "high-volume endpoint" to reach consumers.
"Now our programmers are doing more work on mobiles first. That is in fact the
change," Google CEO Eric Schmidt told an audience at this year's Mobile World
Congress in Barcelona, Spain, speaking for the first time at the event.
Because the mobile devices are "more specific, more human, more location aware,
more interactive, more dynamic, more personal" than computers, they are more
satisfying to programmers, he said.
Google, which became an important player in the mobile industry with the launch
of Linux-based open platform Android in 2008 and last month's release of the
first Google phone, the Nexus One, denied that it is competing against mobile
carriers.
During the question and answer session, audience members voiced "fears" coming
from telecom companies that Google may steal their revenue streams. Another
questioned if Google is turning mobile carriers into "dumb pipes" that simply
transfers bytes between the customer's device and the Internet.
"I feel very strongly that we depend on successful business of the operators
globally," Schmidt said, urging Google and mobile carriers to come together to
help each other make money.
Despite those concerns, handset device makers and carriers warmly received
Google's operating system for smartphones, he said.
"There are 26 devices with 59 operators, in 48 countries, in 19 languages so far
and it is just the beginning," he said, adding that 60,000 Android devices are
shipped every day.
Schmidt said the explosion of mobile data usage is an opportunity for mobile
operators, which will bring them benefits.
"I can assure you that you will get that money back in many, many ways," he said.
The head of the world's largest search engine, however, emphasized that revenues
should be shared with application developers.
"An application ecosystem is not fundamentally going to happen without a way for
application developers to make money," Schmidt said.
Schmidt forecast a handful of mobile operating systems will continue to exist to
serve smartphone users, unlike the PC industry which saw a limited number of
computer softwares dominating the entire market.
"I don't think this platform market is winner takes all," he said.
On its phone business front, Google is working with partners to bring the Nexus
One worldwide, including to South Korea, although they have yet to lay out any
timeframe for the project, said Andy Rubin, vice president of Google's
engineering unit, who oversees the making of Android.
ylee@yna.co.kr
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