Free Android - Goldmine for Google

Google has developed the Android operating system, designed for free, free distribution, while offering the full support that is characteristic of proprietary closed products. It would seem, what good is it for Google to develop an OS that they are not going to sell, and whose developers are not going to limit the manufacturers of Android-based communicators in any way? However, Google has found a way to reap a considerable benefit.

Jonathan Rosenberg, Google’s first vice president of product management, said the mobile business now brings the company more than a billion dollars in revenue. Profit comes exclusively from people who get access to Google products and services, as well as follow advertising links in the search engine. “Our mobile search queries have grown five times compared to previous years,” said Rosenberg. “And, of course, there are a lot more requests sent from Android phones.” (Translator's note: Android's market share in September was 9.79% , and Google’s share in the mobile search segment was 98.34% )

CEO Eric Schmidt said during a conference on company earnings that Google believes that the mobile market will be a more promising direction than the personal computer market, and that he wants Google to become a leading company in this segment (Translator's note: Eric is highly tuned optimistic, although there is reason for this. The market for mobile devices that work on the Internet in North America grew by almost 3% over the year, accounting for 4% of the total number of devices with Internet access). Based on application sales and search revenue, it already characterizes Android as "extremely profitable." Analysts questioned the platform’s scalability and wondered if Google could implement paid services or even charge for the OS, as Microsoft does. However, Nikesh Arora, president of global sales and business development at Google, said Google was pleased with the revenue and there was “no reason to change the monetization model.”

According to the company, there are about 90,000 applications in the Android Market, and about 200,000 devices running Android OS are sold daily worldwide. If you look at the same data, but the Apple iPhone, then in the AppStore about 300,000 applications with sales of about 100,000 devices per day.