Since it is CES 2006 week, there’s no week-end really, so we go for a Saturday and Sunday coverage of this huge event. As a result, modern slavery goes on in Old Europe, where most of us are. Actually, a part of the CineNow! team is over there filming, taking pictures, interviewing and probably also visiting the Adult Entertainment Expo that takes place in LV at the same time… not lazy but, maniacs maybe? As actor Robin Williams said during his appearance at the Google presentation: "There is more silicon in those tits than in all the hardware at this convention." A nice statement, but this Expo might well be the one you'd pick to find business men who really understand what the customer wants. Thanks to Robin anyway, because he saved Google’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) Larry Page from granting us with another dull performance.
Well they -the team- nevertheless worked enough to deliver some live info on what was going on there. “The following takes place at the Las Vegas CES 2006 between Thursday and Saturday…”
What are Google plans for now?
Page was there for the content, but Robin Williams put some spices in it...
First, to enter the Video-on-demand arena. Google people must have looked closely at Apple’s recent commitment with ABC, and they follow the same path –remember when we told you that Apple was testing the marketplace when they launched this service? They’ve managed to finalize deals with the US NBA league (that’s for National Basket Association, which has as much power and wealth as a mid-sized country), CBS, and a pack of other content providers, such as Sony BMG and the venerable British ITN video archive channel, and Time Warner is rumoured to join soon.
How does it work? Google will feed the Web with rentals and purchase programmes. CBS for instance, will offer, amongst others, “CSI”, but also "The Brady Bunch", "Star Trek" and “I love Lucy” for rental for about $2-, the next day after they’re released on TV. You will be able to watch NBA games with the same 24 hours delay. Google has developed some in-house DM (Digital Rights Management) but is welcoming others’ as well. Yippee!
Last, there is a gimmick, and it’s that every company can put paying content on the Google site at any price, the search giant will charge a fee for the download.
Top motivation for all this, diversifying Google’s revenues, 99pct of which being currently drawn from search-based ads.
Second, they go for a deal with Motorola (NYSE:MOT), the world’s second largest mobile phone maker. Motorola is keen at drawing customers to the web, and this three-year alliance is about surfing on Google’s popularity among Internet users (who happen to be mobile phone addicts as well). All mobile phone brands and operators have failed so far to push their clients into heavy usage of 3G phones. Basically, phones are made for calls, users say. Yet, Motorola persists and plans to ship its first Google-equipped devices by late Q1/2006.
"We're convinced that having a great experience on the handsets not only helps us sell more handsets but also enables us to command a higher ASP (Average selling price)," Motorola's Corporate Vice-President Scott Durchslag said. He added that tests had been run with clients using Google search engine-equipped phones, and that this only had significantly increased the mobile access to the Web.
Google is looking for a win there as well, since its brand would be associated with access to the Web, whichever the platform, PC or mobile phones. Google executives are flexible and say they will go along and evolve with the demand, although they don’t seem to have any doubt about the futur of all this; they anticipate that more and more consumers will use data services.
"As and when further business models evolve on the mobile devices, we'll deal with that as we go along," Nikesh Arora, head of European operations at Google, said. This one should know about this market, since he is a former mobile industry executive.
In this view, Google said it expected more and more consumers to use data services, helping mobile operators in turn. "That should be a win-win-win for all three of us," said Arora.
Ambitions and ideas are not what's missing at Google H/Qs, as it seems. And everyone on the planet looks for them as partners... But for Yahoo, Microsoft, maybe even Apple.
Visit Google website here
Visit Motorola website here
Visit the CES 2006 website here
Visit the Adult Entertainment Expo here