Google Creating Strong Headwinds in the Cell Phone Market

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Naveen Sachdeva submits:According to research from Gartner, Google (GOOG 476.14 ↓-0.01%)’s Android OS for mobiles will be tied at top position with Nokia (NOK 9.94 ↑1.84%)’s Symbian and account for 30% of all cell phone operating system sales by 2014. As with all their other products, Google provides their OS for free to cell phone providers, including Motorola (MOT 7.92 ↓-0.75%), HTC (5.19 ↑0.00%) and Samsung (005930 767000.00 ↑0.13%), to build its brand value and increase the user base of its products, and relies majorly on online advertising to generate revenues. As Google is well positioned to beat Nokia, the biggest cell phone maker worldwide, I believe that they can do similar wonders with their Chrome OS for PCs to be launched next year and give Microsoft (MSFT 23.85 ↓-0.67%) a hard time in the PC market.

Google’s Android was launched two years ago and, according to Google CEO, Eric Schmidt, more than 200,000 Android based phones are sold every day. According to a report by NPD (3.11 ↓-0.96%), Android is already the No. 1 operating system in US based on the statistics from second quarter. Although Finland based Nokia’s Symbian still holds the No.1 ranking in the world, they have been struggling big time for the past three years in the smartphone market, which is currently the most profitable and fastest growing segment of cell phone market and is dominated by Apple (AAPL 263.41 ↑0.13%)’s IOS and Google’s Android.


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