Google prepares for next internet??? yes on mobile of course

Today's Financial Times has a big column by Eric Schmidt the new CEO of Google.  It talks about how to get "more of the world" to access the web. Mr Schmidt writes of themes very familiar to visitors to this blog. Not only seeing a convergence and an increased role of search in modern life (as we write in our book) but also he writes:

"Mobile phones are cheaper than PCs, there are three times more of them, growing at twice the speed, and they increasingly have internet access. What is more, the World Bank estimates that more than two-thirds of the world's population lives within range of a mobile phone network. Mobile is going to be the next big internet phenomenon. It holds the key to greater access to everyone - with all the benefits that entails."

We could not agree more. And it is quite amazing that the new CEO of Google takes this bold a view of the emerging mobile internet. Watch this space. Google will not sit on the sidelines when the majority of the internet users migrate away from Google's current base, PCs, onto mobile phones.. Very exciting times indeed.

About the only thing I would add, is that the best content will also migrate to the mobile phone-based internet because the money is there. It is very difficult and clumsy to charge for content on the traditional internet. You need Paypals or credit cards or other work-arounds. But every mobile phone can handle payment directly, at a click. In fact mobile phones, through premium-SMS payment, are already used in various internet applications to gain access to micropayments. More about this in my previous posting at this link [What happens when the majority access the web by mobile phone]