gPhone
Is gPhone hardware or software? The new rumors about it being software are a lot easier for me to believe. Google has shareholders to answer to, and I can't imagine the savvy ones being too excited about Google getting involved with a highly competitive field like mobile phones, however, by providing revenue generating tools to newcomers to the mobile marketplace, Google will be able to expand their search empire while maintaining focus.
For example, "XYZ Mobile Company" doesn't have much of a chance to succeed against Verizon Wireless or AT&T Wireless from the get go. However, if they were able to offer lower priced / lower coverage, along with supplemental wi-fi voip capabilities, they would definitely get going. They would be able to offer lower priced services by bundling in Google's gPhone software, which would include a search engine returning quality information and advertisements. In this scenario, the cell phone service provider becomes a lot like an adSense affiliate, or a search partner like Firefox. The Mozilla Foundation has reportedly made serious bank through their embedded Google search field.
Meraki Price Increase
Meraki now has two offerings for their wireless routers: standard and pro. The pro version is 3x as much, $149 versus $49 for the standard. The difference is in the service. Its interesting to see them bundle software service into the hardware price. This is very smart business, though they may have pushed too high. My gut tells me the $149 price tag will serve more as an invitation to competitors instead of a ramp for their revenue. What do you think?
iPhone Lawsuit
Big surprise... Arst Technica is reporting that a California man is putting together a class action lawsuit against AT&T and Apple. Good for him.
Now google is trying to get into the phone business. They are becoming a business monster. Do you think they'll ever have as much of an impact on the market as say Microsoft. I know thats a bold statement, but at the rate they're going you never know.
Its hard to say, like Microsoft had with their operating system, Google has a "killer app" - the Google search engine and the ads it is able to sell for it. Microsoft was able to leverage its operating system to gain market control and domination of the productivity as well with its Office Suite. I'm not sure if Google can do the same thing with its search engine.