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March 30, 2007

iphone

Google apps on iPhone not exclusive by any means

Posted Mar. 30, ’07, 7:02 AM PT by Derik DeLong
Category | iPhone

iPhone vs. Prada When the iPhone was announced at MWSF, we were all treated to a parade of people that aren’t Steve (referred to as PTAS from now on). Jerry Yang from Yahoo discussed the use of Yahoo email for the iPhone (it’s also worth noting that Yahoo email accounts will have unlimited space soon). Google’s CEO and Apple board member Eric Schmidt kissed Steve’s butt and talked about Google apps on the iPhone.

I’ll admit, part of the iPhone mystique for me were the partnerships that Apple has set up. Google Maps and the “push” email will have a huge impact on the usefulness of the device. However, Yahoo and Google are both promiscuous.

LG says it will pre-install Google’s mobile apps, including Maps and Gmail, on millions of LG phones that will be sold in North America, Europe and Asia starting in the second quarter of 2007. In February, LG announced a similar deal with Yahoo’s mobile services. An interesting aspect of the announcement is that LG and Google say they will jointly market LG-Google handsets — I wonder how many of the major U.S. carriers will be interested in those marketing efforts?

LG says it will offer one-click access to Google search in its menu, and preload Google Maps, Gmail, and Blogger. LG also says it will launch 10 of the new LG-Google phones this year. Google and Samsung also have a similar deal for mobile services as do Samsung and Yahoo. The LG-Google deal, and Yahoo’s partnerships with other device makers show that handset makers are beginning to realize the consumer appeal of popular web services such email and IM services, and that they can be an attractive sales tool.

Will those phones be nearly as cool? Will they have the pinch? No, but inevitably, someone with an axe to grind against Apple will use these other partnerships as proof that the iPhone is nothing special, opting for the “the more feature bullets, the better the device” theory. We all know the usability is going to make the iPhone.


2 Comments

Eduardo said:

WoW! Who's the hottie to the right of Jobs?!?!

March 30, 2007 12:59 PM
gary said:

My 50 dollar low tech razor phone has gmail and google maps preinstalled, so this really isn't news.

Preinstalled apps are not, nor ever were what's going to make the iPhone special (and I think it will be).

March 30, 2007 7:03 PM

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