Jason Hiner of Techrepublic ran a story yesterday about how Google is not his go-to tool on his iPhone the way it is on a standard computer. Rather than searching Google for “New York Midtown restaurants,” for example, as one would on a laptop or desktop, Mr. Hiner points out that on his iPhone, he just pulls out his Yelp application and gets restaurants near his location. This trend is not just limited to Google on the iPhone – they are just a big target. The real problem is that mobile devices are more conducive to specialized services in the form of applications.
The problem for Google is not that they are shrinking, but that they are not growing as quickly in the mobile space as one might expect. This is largely because people have been trained to not use Google on their cell phones. Given that, especially on touch-screen keyboards, browsing to Google, typing in a search, and then wading through results is cumbersome, the solution is obvious: keep a mobile application on hand that returns information in a better way. Applications for mobile devices are not only designed with mobile formfactor and computational power in mind, but to be very specific in their results, so while the data returned may not be as complete, it will be more immediately useful.
The other trend that is occurring is that the browser is not the all-purpose application that so many desktop users see it to be. For example, while a very large portion of gaming is done in-browser on a normal computer, this is not at all the case on a handset. The iPhone does not even have Flash support, so any games that users play on it (and they do play a lot of games) are within specific applications. This creates a whole extra mess for developers to deal with as they have to port their code if they want to really get their products out there.
In effect, the mobile space levels the playing field a bit. The fact that dictionary software can be successful on the iPhone is indication that services once believed to be relegated to the category of free and supported by online advertising can make a comeback as revenue boosters. On the other hand, don’t think that this will topple the giants. Google can much more easily push out applications than can almost any other company, so size still does matter.
