Google Goes ‘Big With A Gig’

This article was originally written for The Hartford Informer on February 18th, 2010.
In a huge announcement this week, Google announced last Thursday the development of a gigabit internet service provider (ISP). The California company and internet search giant is going to places it has never reached. Google provided more than 65 percent of the searches in the United States in 2009 and in recent years Google has moved from its Web based origins in the form of Gmail, Google Maps and Google Docs and has begun developing an operating system. Android, the company’s phone OS, was released in late 2008. Google also plans to release a computer OS, named Chrome later this year. This latest announcement is a clean departure from online and personal computing.
The idea is to gain the support of whole communities and provide this lightening fast Internet to them. In total, Google ISP looks to reach between 50,000 and 500,000 people in its first test run.
The real importance of this announcement is not that Google is now going to compete with the likes of Comcast, AT&T, Cablevision and Verizon but that Google will be providing a service capable of being 100 times faster than any single one of those companies can provide.
In recent years current ISP’s have been trying to boost their speed. Comcast announced it will rebrand its Internet service as Xfinity this week, but really this is still the slow network they’ve been running for years. Verizon is laying fiber optic lines around New York and New Jersey bringing FiOS to their consumers. Both services only provide up to 50 Mbps, and their only main motive is profit.
Google is not different and could technically charge anything for their new fiber optic service, given that companies like Comcast charge over $50 for under 20Mbps, Google’s gigabit would provide 50 times that. But Google’s mantra is “don’t be evil,” and (whether you believe it or not) this test isn’t about making money. This test is really about the physicality of providing 1Gbps to large numbers of people. The average internet speed for the United States is just 4.8Mbps, in Japan it’s 61Mbps. The kicker is that they both cost the same, around $15 a month for the average speed.
Seattle, Ontario County NY, Washington DC and the entire state of Hawaii have already expressed interest in “going big with a gig” with Google’s new service.
Google’s idea is to see the reality of providing amazing speeds at a low cost. With real-world cost analysis and implementation of the technology we can see just how viable high speed internet is.
It remains to be seen whether this will be a game changer or a massive failure. But with initial costs that could be in the billions, this is an experiment Google must be invested in for the long term.

The Mysterious Motorola

Remember those commercials from what seems like years ago? ‘Hello Moto’ they would say. I would respond, ‘hello, but my name isn’t Moto so I don’t really know who you’re talking to, and I don’t really care for your phones either if that’s what you are actually selling because it particularly hard to tell in some cases’. These ads were about nothing, which says a lot for the brand it was promoting: they were nobodies. Not that I really cared at that point in time, but I don’t know a single person who owned a Motorola phone.

Yet here they are—Motorola that is. Its 2009 now and Motorola have a new phone out which Verizon is going more that out of its way to promote. Sure Verizon is kind of PO’ed at the Apple and the iPhone, but still its aggressively promoting a brand which for one reason or another hasn’t actively existed for the past 5 years. The Motorola droid will be officially deployed on the Verizon network on November 6th according to Verizon today.
While 3 of the Droids four legs are the Android 2.0 Mobile OS, the final legs is one that I have never actually associated with Motorola before—Style. Yea I said it, this phone has style. It’s slim and sexy, and it’s also functional—camera, 3.7 inches of display, exchange support, Google maps with directional interface this phone has most of ‘it all.’

From a company who’s only statically achievement in its history was the flimsily built but illogically popular Razr, this phone is their first foray into the Smartphone market. Critical reception for this new phone is good, and it might turn out to be a strong competitor for those of us not rich enough to buy an iPhone and all the strings attached.

Droid does what iDoesnt; and what this means to the iPhone and Verizon

You may have seen over the past week or so several of the new Verizon attack ads on the TV. The target? Well originally it was AT&T, but as of this Sunday it’s been more specifically targeted at Apple.
Last week Verizon rolled out the ‘there’s a map for that’ campaign. Cleverly taking the AT&T-Apple iPhone slogan, ‘there’s an app for that,’ and turning it around on them. The ad shows Verizon’s 3G network (a map that is nearly entirely red shaded) compared to AT&T’s 3G network (a maps that has hardly any blue shaded). And while the maps may not be entirely accurate, points have to be given for Verizon finally taking a stand against the near unstoppable iPhone.
As of last week though, Verizon didn’t have anything to counter the iPhone in terms of phone power. This weekend changed this. In an even more direct attack on the iPhone, Verizon launched its Droid does commercial. The advertisement serves to pronounce all the things the iPhone doesn’t do with phrases like ‘iDon’t take pictures in the dark’ or ‘iDon’t run simultaneous apps.’
The advertisement is smartly played along to a tune that could have come right out of any other iPhone commercial, and the font face is eerily similar. The ad ends with the saying ‘Droid does’ and ‘November.’
The product Verizon is advertising is the Motorola Droid, due for release on October 28th (as far we can figure from the droiddoes.com website). The phone will run Android 2.0, the latest version of Google’s Mobile Phone operating system; and will include a 5 megapixel camera, a full QWERTY keyboard as well as all the other bells and whistles associated with the average touch-screen Smartphone.
The reason why all of this is significant is twofold. Firstly it marks the first Smartphone that has come close to rivaling the market dominance of the iPhone in terms of features and power. But secondly, and perhaps more importantly, it signals that Verizon may not ever be getting the iPhone.
The current contract between Apple and AT&T is set to expire in 2010. And like with any Apple venture there is ample speculation about what exactly is happening in Cupertino. The speculation states that Verizon will finally have a piece of the iPhone pie—a partnership that could mean potential hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue for Apple. Further rumors say that even at this moment a fourth generation iPhone is being tested on Verizon’s next generation LTE (long term evolution) network.
Looking at the UK for example, the iPhone has lost its single carrier exclusivity, and is now carried by the three major mobile phone networks. But how can this happen in a U.S market where Verizon is deliberately and unmistakably attacking the iPhone’s potential? And the truth is that it most likely can’t.
So dispel those 2010 CDMA Verizon-iPhone rumors because with the kind of money Verizon is throwing at knocking the iPhone down a rung on the mobile ladder they are burning all sorts of bridges that could have made it a done deal.