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Jan. 22, 2010

Google's new venture into the wireless segment came up during its fourth-quarter conference call yesterday, and the search giant is convinced that it's going in the right direction.

"We think there's a potential to actually make this mobile Internet better than the traditional computer Web," said Jonathan Rosenberg, senior vice president, Product Management, in a call with Wall Street analysts.

Asked about the distribution model around Google's new Nexus One handset, he said it's really about a new way of buying a phone. "The Nexus One is simply the first of a series of examples where you can essentially purchase a phone online from one or multiple manufacturers, order it and have it just work perfectly the first time," Rosenberg said.

"We think that this is a natural evolution of a particular model. It doesn't exclude the other models and I think it is comparable with the retail model and seems to be quite successful."

Google CEO Eric Schmidt said the company has a lot of evidence that people are moving to data-friendly mobile devices very quickly, with search traffic growing quite a bit faster than on PCs.

"So far our partners have understood that message and they have been OK with it and the Nexus One itself of course is a magnificent product."

As for Apple, "As a former board member I have a special place in my heart for Apple and I will tell you that the company is a very well run company," Schmidt said.

"Apple has a lot of very good stuff coming. They have a couple of very good partnerships and we also compete with them in a couple of areas. My guess is that it will be a stable situation for awhile."

Last year, Android started with just one MID (mobile Internet device) and is now sold in more than 20 different models in no less than 48 countries.

Regarding China, Schmidt said Google's business in China today is unchanged. "A reasonably short time from now, we will be making some changes there," he said.

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Source: Google.