Google denies a report that it is sharing advertising revenues derived from mobile applications on Android smartphones with carrier and handset partners. The search engine maintains the only revenue sharing it engages in is from paying carriers a cut of its search-related advertising sales. If Google was doling out dollars for ads served on all of its mobile apps, it could alter the competitive landscape for handset makers that aren't building Android phones, including Apple, Microsoft, Nokia and Palm. However, Google hasn't ably figured out a way to make its success in placing ads for its mobile search app translate to Gmail, YouTube and its other applications.
Google denied a report that it is sharing advertising revenues derived from
mobile applications on Android smartphones with carrier and handset partners,
noting that it currently only shares sales collected from search advertising.
MocoNews
suggested March 25 that phone makers and carriers are shipping
so many Android phones because Google pays these parties a portion of the ad
sales it collects from Google applications consumed on those devices.
These deals were designed for carriers and partners that sold smartphones
that ship with
Google's mobile applications for Android preinstalled on the
handsets.
Such devices include the Motorola Droid from Verizon Wireless and HTC-built
Nexus One sold by Google. Both smartphones include Google Maps, Gmail, YouTube,
Google Buzz, Google Shopper and many other apps.
However, a Google spokesperson told eWEEK March 26 that the initial MocoNews
report is not true, noting: "We share revenue on search, not on mobile
applications. The same is true for non-Android devices that use Google as the
default search engine."
What if Google were doling out dollars for ads served on all of its mobile
apps? Such sweetheart deals could alter the competitive landscape for handset
makers that aren't building Android phones, including Apple, Microsoft, Nokia
and Palm.
Or perhaps not. Google hasn't ably figured out a way to make its success in
serving ads with its mobile search app translate to Gmail, YouTube and its
other applications.
As Silicon Insider
noted, paying partners ad shares for such apps would also be
detrimental to Google's bottom line.
Google lists at least 15 mobile apps, none of which is generating heavy ad
dollars. If Google apportioned money made from ads for all of its mobile apps
to carriers and manufacturers, it would undermine the point of Android, which
is to carve out as big a slice of the mobile Web ad pie as possible.
Hence the search engine's
$750 million bid for AdMob, whose mobile display ads and in-app
ads success has made it a prized possession. Unfortunately for Google, the
Federal Trade Commission hasn't yet seen fit to
grant Google's purchase wish.
Still, there is no doubt Android phones are proliferating. At least five new
Android smartphones were
unveiled at CTIA Wireless 2010 last week, including devices from
Sprint and HTC, Kyocera, Motorola, Dell and
Samsung.
Moreover, spokespeople for Sony Ericsson and LG Electronics (
paywall warning) told the Wall Street Journal they were not
scared to build and sell Android devices
despite Apple's patent infringement lawsuit versus HTC.
This confidence in Android, and in HTC
and Google's ability to protect it versus litigation, bodes well for the open-source
platform.
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