Assume you run a pizza joint, maybe three or four pizza
joints. A customer walks in and says, “I have a QR code. I want a slice of
cheese and pepperoni.”
Make any sense to you? Probably not, but before I explain a
free coupon, a Google-generated bar code, and a free slice, I want to highlight
some facts:
ITEM: Google’s mobile phone operating system has captured the
attention of the mobile world. In Barcelona, at an annual gathering of
telecommunications insiders, Google’s chairman and CEO, Eric Schmidt, delivered
a keynote speech and hosted an Android operating system “Developer Lab.” Two
years ago, Google was on the bench watching the action.
ITEM: Dell’s Mini 5, a handheld computer with a phone,
touch-screen interface and Google Apps, runs the Google Android operating
system.
ITEM: Android, the open source operating system captured 5.2
percent of the U.S. mobile phone market share, up from 2.5 percent in September
2009, according to a Dow Jones newswire report.
ITEM: At the consumer electronics show, MIPS Technologies Inc.
announced an Android-equipped digital home device, a Swiss Army knife of video
recording, Web browsing and personalized program guides.
Who knew?
In 2007, Google was the Web search and advertising company
with dozens of wacky projects like Web Accelerator (big flop) to the Google
online spreadsheet (too slow) and the home run Google Maps service. Google was
quirky, rolling in cash and a long shot for making headway in the insular world
of telecommunications.
Google knew.
The company began its long march to telecommunications in
1999, a year after its founding. The company’s patent applications reference
mobile communications, but the reference seemed like little more than one of
those kitchen-sink phrases that attorneys put in documents to broaden the scope
of a patent application. Between 1999 and 2006, Google’s patent filings reveal
a building-block approach to mobile functions and services. The most striking
invention for those who took the time to review these public documents was
Sergey Brin’s “Voice interface for a search engine,” filed in February 2006.
Shift from Google’s increasingly large role in mobile devices,
set-top boxes and mobile operating systems to the familiar business directory,
known colloquially as “the Yellow Pages.” Like other print reference books, the
Yellow Pages are in my office. I know I receive a couple of copies once, maybe
twice a year. But I have not used a printed phonebook for two, maybe three
years.