Cellphones Competition Hot-Up

Yahoo and Google take aim at mobile eyeballs

Google's Android and Yahoo's Go version 3 want to get into your cellphones. By OO GIN LEE

THE war of the mobiles is on. The two behemoths of online advertising, Google and Yahoo, are now taking their battle to the mobile phone.

Google fired the first salvo when it announced the launch of its Android 'open' mobile platform last November.

Then, just two months later in January, Yahoo responded with its 'open' Yahoo Go version 3 suite of mobile applications which now also works with applications developed by third-party developers.

Online advertising is big business, but so far has been limited to the PC Web.

But with twice more mobile phones than PCs in the market and growing, the mobile Web is one huge advertising platform that both Google and Yahoo cannot ignore for future growth.

In essence, Google is building a whole new blueprint for mobile phones, which, fortunately or unfortunately, has not been dominated by one main operating system called Microsoft Windows.

While that means more room for competition, it has also made it harder for developers to create applications which can work across all the different mobile phones.

New system

With Android, Google has the chance to build a whole new system from the ground up, and perhaps one that offers a much better experience for mobile users which is closer to the PC Web that we have all grown used to.

It won't be easy for Google, because in the phone market, the mobile operators and handset makers still call the shots.

Can Google break the impasse?

To succeed, it needs to bring the application developers together and it is pumping US$10 million (US$14.2 million) to fuel software creation for the Android.

Yahoo, however, takes a different approach.

It wants to maximise the eyeballs on Yahoo's products like Search, Mail and the personalised Web portal called my Yahoo.

It wants to be the 'starting point' for consumers when they go online, both on the PC and the mobile Web.

So its new Yahoo Go 3 mobile application suite also doubles as a platform where users can add third-party applications called widgets and therefore garner even more eyeballs.

More eyeballs, more ads

More eyeballs translates to more opportunities for online ads.

As its widget platform is Web-based, it should work across all the different operating systems, whether it is Windows Mobile, Nokia Series 60 or the upcoming Google Android.

It's still too early to say who will win the war, but in the meantime, what is clear is that mobile users are now getting a lot closer to the PC Web experience.

Combine that with faster mobile broadband speeds through 3.5G, and it looks like the mobile Web business is finally ready to rock and roll.