Android is making surprising gains in the smartphone market, according to the latest Gartner statistics: in Q2 the platform overtook Apple's iPhone OS to become the third-most-popular OS in the world. In the U.S, it also overtook RIM's OS to become the No. 1 smartphone OS in this region.
Its recipe for growth? A non-exclusive strategy, many different communication service providers, several different device manufacturers, and a steady stream of new sexy devices coming to market at different price points.
Yes, Google knew what it was doing when it launched Android. By design it doesn’t product much revenue or profit for Google. The point of making the technology available to all comers was to make the web - and hence search - as accessible as possible on smartphones. Despite Apple's mammoth-sized market share, buzz and cadre of devoted users, Google is a viable competitor for market leader of mobile search. As Android continues to expand and evolve, marketers are looking for a hint of what the next-gen search capabilities will be on this platform. Google is not know for tipping its hand, but every now and then it does provide some hints:
Passive and Intuitive. The day is coming when Google will be performing search on your behalf - without you having to type in the request, says CEO Eric Schmidt. (via the Wall Street Journal). "I actually think most people don't want Google to answer their questions," he says. "They want Google to tell them what they should be doing next."
For instance, someone walking down the street with their phone can - thanks the knowledge store Google has accumulated about this person - be reminded he or she needs milk and that there is a store nearby to pick it up. Or that the museum ahead has a gift shop with prints horse-racing posters, or that a historic event this person is now reading about took place on the next block.
Social Is Key. Admittedly Google hasn't done this well, but the company is not through trying to crack the social puzzle (Google Me is the subject of recurring rumors about Google‘s next big thing). It will also link the intuitive search capabilities described above with the social element, according to Marissa Mayer, head of Google Search (via Fortune magazine).
Say a person is planning a trip to Australia. A search pull up hotel, tourist spots, blog posts - and pose questions to a local friend about where to go shopping or dining in Sydney, without bothering the rest of your network. "Who you are, your context, what you are doing, who your friends are - if all of that comes in as the search input," she says, "what is the right output?"
