Number one stunner

Last week, Google reported that Apple's iPhones generate 50 times more Google searches than any other mobile handset.

"We thought it was a mistake and made our engineers check the logs again," said Vic Gundotra of Google’s mobile operations during the Mobile World Congress.

Gundotra added easy web access — like that found on the iPhone — would enable mobile search to outpace fixed internet search in "the next several years," thus yielding higher incremental ad revenue for Google.

But the news about heavy iPhone queries, however unexpected, has not sated Google's ambition to dominate the mobile market.

The Mobile World Congress witnessed the debut of a prototype Android phone by ARM, a British chip firm. Android is Google's open-source mobile platform. Android-based handsets shall start shipping in the second half of '08.

"We want every phone to be a Google phone," Gundotra told the Financial Times.

"The best way to do this would be to get Google’s mobile operating system, Android, deployed on as many types of handsets as possible."