There are millions of Google Android smartphone users, with Google reporting that 160,000 new handsets are activated every day. But since Google is giving away the operating system for free, you might be wondering how Google plans to make money from Android.
The most obvious thing Google is doing is creating demand for Google services including search, email, calendar, contact, and other cloud-based apps. The more you use those, the more you’ll be exposed to Google ads — if not on your mobile device, then the next time you login to your account using a desktop web browser.
But speaking to the Wall Street Journal, Google CEO Eric Schmidt suggested there might be another revenue stream: subscription services. For instance, if Google launched a service costing just $10 per year that lets you subscribe to premium newspaper content, Schmidt says, it could easily generate $10 billion dollars.
Of course, there is no such Google service right now. And if there were, Google would probably have to split the revenue with newspaper publishers. But you get the idea.
Oh yeah, and Google’s expected to launch a music service for Android users soon. Does anyone really think that Google isn’t going to figure out a way to make money off of the fastest growing smartphone platform around?
