Google vs. Yahoo - The Mobile Battle

Mobile seems to be on the tip of everyone tongue but personally, it's still a long while for adoption to kick in and usage to pick up by the masses.

Behaviour is very much task and scenario driven.

For example, how inclined are you to renew your road tax using your mobile?

You will do so only if:

1. It has expired and you need to renew it NOW before you drive off, paying with your credit card.

2. While having nothing to do, you remember you need to pay and you do it while waiting for your daughter's ballet lesson to be over (and just in case you forget later).

Take this scenario and apply it to your email, mobile entertainment and buying a pair of movie tickets at the last minute.

To use mobile services, there are basically main two scenarios:

1. On demand and time sensitive. (I need to do this NOW!)

2. To be entertained. (Watching the news on your mobile while on the train to work)

Barriers to usage:
I have a 50GB mobile data plan and I use my mobile for email, booking movies, watching YouTube to reading news from RSS feeds. The amount of data I chalk up, if not for my data plan hits almost SGD$1,000 per month. (Thanks to my plan, I only pay about SGD$20 per month!)

It's quite clear. The cost of data by the telecommunication providers.

Many users are still not on a data plan simply because they don't need one for work and most do have a habit of using their mobile to get information... yet.

Till the day comes where data cost is low, or bundled very well to ALL mobile users, it may take a while for many to hop on. The survey results by BuzzCity shows that mobile users are unable to 'calculate' the amount of data used, thus uncertain about additional costs to their phone bill. It's easier to measure time.

Google VS Yahoo

These internet giants have both launched a mobile application that runs their suite of services like email, photos and of course, search.

It's hard to say who will 'win' but my take is the one with the most functional features will win.

In my view, Google has what it takes. With Andriod, the first complete, open, and free mobile platform. This has set the stage for more applications and features driven by the community. As I mentioned in my earlier post on the music industry, demand is driven by the community. While Yahoo! claims to be an open application format, it's still not that 'open'.

Presentation wise, Yahoo! boast a well designed and colourful interface. Google on the other hand is plain, simple and faster simply because it's optimised for the mobile (knowing the limited resources on the mobile's hardware). I prefer Google on that aspect.

While we wait and see, mobile adoption may not take place so quickly. Let's give it another year. 2009 maybe?

Here's Google's Video:





Hitch this story on: