Motorola Smartphone to Offer One-Click Google Search

TechNewsWorld writes about the recent mobile efforts from Motorola, Google and Yahoo. Motorola "will begin shipping handsets that include one-click buttons on the keypad and carry the Google icon" in the first quarter, while the "Yahoo Go Mobile initiative is a more comprehensive set of services, including Internet access from a cell phone as well as via television and PC. This service will first become available on the Nokia smartphones."

Yankee Group analyst John Jackson said, "Thus far, operators have taken a portal-centric approach to delivering an online experience to mobile phone users,. They provide a finite set of services to users."

Jackson explained this was due to network operators wanting consumers to have a good user experience. He said, "if they start surfing all over the Web and try to access a page with a lot of graphs, for instance, the network probably won't support it.If the phone is to become an Internet appliance, it has to behave like the desktop," he insisted. "Users will demand access to what they want -- not what Verizon, for example, prescribes."

Jackson predicted that "Consumers don't know if they want something until they see it. For example, a few years ago, we queried consumers as to their demand for MP3 music made available over their cell phone. The response was muted. Providing search in a mobile environment is another case of manufacturers taking a bet that they can generate demand once the product is released."

Mukul Krishna at Frost and Sullivan added, "It makes Wall Street happy when a company can say something new is in the works." Krishna noted that "consumers who are able to afford an Internet-enabled smartphone probably have mobile access via their PDAs and Blackberries already." H suggested, "This service will be redundant in that respect."