Youth Curry - Insight on Indian Youth

Posted by Ulf Waschbusch, Product Marketing Manager, Google mobile team

Google fürs iPhone jetzt auch in deutsch! Et en français .. en in het Nederlands and in many more languages. When we launched our new Google interface for the iPhone at Macworld in San Francisco last January, a number of you approached us at our booth and asked when you could use our new interface in your home country. (Yes, San Francisco IS a very cosmopolitan city.) I am happy to say: the time has come. Today we’re launching our new integrated Google experience for the iPhone and iPod Touch in 33 new markets and 16 new languages, from Argentina to New Zealand, from Swedish to Chinese.

Google on the iPhone is a great way to access your most used Google services. Some of its benefits include

• Fast and fluid search with one-tap access to News, image, local, or web results and search query suggestions when you start typing
• Automatic delivery of Gmail messages (no need to refresh your browser!), and auto-completion of email addresses when typing
• A combined month-and-current-day view of your always-in-sync Google Calendar, and the ability to share pictures with friends and family using Picasa Web Albums

Today we’re also launching a special Google News edition for the iPhone. Browse the front page or search for results straight from the home page. Enjoy the full catalog of Google News sources and even watch associated YouTube content.

To try out the new Google interface, just point your iPhone or iPod Touch web browser to www.google.com.

Furthermore, if you use Google Apps - now is the time to use your domain name on the iPhone as well. Just bookmark http://www.google.com/m/a/YOURDOMAIN for fast one-click access to Google. Please make sure to replace YOURDOMAIN with your actual domain name.

Posted by Andy McEwan, Software Engineer, Google mobile team

As a mobile user, you choose a carrier, subscription plan, platform and handset model (think of it as a flavour) that suits your fancy. And with mobile applications becoming more and more important in your everyday wireless experience, you want to be sure that the apps you know and love will run beautifully on the phone you finally decide to call your own.

That’s why we’ve just released a “native” UIQ version of our Google Maps for mobile client application. Native applications are optimized for the platform on which they’re built, meaning they run fast and feel right. UIQ is an open mobile software platform that supports rich user interfaces like touch- and full-screen. Now that Google Maps for mobile runs natively on UIQ for Symbian OS, you can get the full benefit of handy features like My Location on a wider range of phones.

You can already get Google Maps for mobile clients custom-built for Palm, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, iPhone, and Symbian S60, in addition to the widely-used Java version of the application. Now, this list includes the following UIQ handsets (version 3.0 and up): new Sony Ericsson phones with touch screens — P1, W960i, W950, M600 or P990 — and the Motorola Z8. And new UIQ phones are coming out all the time; look for the soon-to-be-released Sony Ericsson G700 and G900, as well as the Motorola Z10.

Supporting so many platforms means only one thing: whatever gold-plated, diamond-encrusted or mint-scented handset you choose, a zippy mobile mapping experience is never more than a download away. Just visit google.com/gmm from your phone’s web browser, and we’ll get you sorted.

Posted by Lawrence Chang, Product Marketing Manager, Google mobile team

If you own an iPhone or a Helio Ocean, chances are you’ve already been enjoying some of YouTube’s tens of millions of videos through custom applications developed for your device. On the other hand, if you have a phone that supports streaming video and you’ve been visiting m.youtube.com through your mobile browser, you’ve only been able to view a smaller subset of YouTube for Mobile videos.

Starting today, m.youtube.com offers the full assortment of the tens of millions of videos that YouTube fans around the world have come to know and love. What’s more, you can now log in to your YouTube account through your mobile phone browser to rate, share, and comment on videos, view your favorites, and even upload new videos.

Also launching today is a beta version of a YouTube for mobile Java application for a select number of mobile devices, including the Sony Ericsson K800 and W880 and the Nokia E65, N95, N73, 6110 Navigator, and 6120 Classic. Through this downloadable application (currently available in U.S. and U.K. English), you can access the entire YouTube for Mobile catalog. The application includes a super slick interface (with a carousel view of video tiles), as well as full community and uploading features.

Watch the video below to see product managers Dwipal Desai and Andreas Tuerk demo today’s YouTube for Mobile releases. As always, let us know what you think by leaving comments below. And, feel free to leave these guys video comments as well!

Posted by Lawrence Chang, Product Marketing Manager, Google mobile team

At the Macworld Conference and Expo in San Francisco this week, the Google mobile team joined other Googlers from the Geo, YouTube, and Mac teams at the Google booth, space #1268, in Moscone Center South Hall. In addition to demonstrating our various products we also served up Geo Bingo, the Google mobile scavenger hunt, and, of course, Google swag giveaways. For those of you who were able to visit our booth, thanks for stopping by and saying hello!

Here are some videos of the Google mobile team taken at the conference. As always, you can watch our other videos on the Google Mobile Blog YouTube Channel.

• Google Mobile at Macworld: Marc Vanlerberghe and Gummi Hafsteinsson are shown in action at the Google booth, while Anita Mhaskar and Ulf Waschbusch reveal the Google swag giveaways.
• Interview with Steve Kanfesky: Anita Mhaskar chats with Steve Kanefsky, one of the software engineers responsible for developing the Google experience for the iPhone. Steve talks about the Macworld keynote and some of the new features of Google on the iPhone.
• Overview of Google Mobile Products on the iPhone: Sidney Chang and Ulf Waschbusch highlight some of our new product features in a presentation at the booth.

From waiting in line for the keynote to snapshots of Googlers working the booth, here’s a view of Macworld from the lens of Steve Kanfesky:

Posted by Jerry Morrison, Software Engineer, Google mobile team

At Macworld today, version 1.1.3 of Apple’s iPhone software was announced that includes updates to Google Maps for mobile and IMAP access to Gmail. You can get the updated software by syncing your iPhone with iTunes and agreeing to the update.

Once you get the latest version, Google Maps for mobile on the iPhone can provide you with automated location information, thanks in part to Google’s My Location technology. Just push the button with a circle on it at the bottom left-hand side of the Google Maps for mobile application and you’ll see a circle appear on the map approximating your current position. If you have an iPod Touch, you can now have access to Maps for the first time.

Also, the latest iPhone email application will now use IMAP to access your Gmail account rather than POP. IMAP is better than POP because your Gmail messages on your iPhone are better synchronized to your Gmail account.

As a developer for Google Maps for mobile, I had a good time watching Steve Jobs today demonstrate Maps on the iPhone at Macworld. It’s a fun project to work on and it wows my friends and family, too. On Sunday I demo’d it on an iPhone to the FIRST Robotics high school team I mentor. The students seemed to be as inspired by what they saw as I am by their robot designs.

Posted by Sidney Chang, Product Manager, Google mobile team

Six weeks since launching the first version of an integrated Google.com on the iPhone, we’ve heard a lot of meaningful and insightful feedback from you and we’ve addressed some of them in this current release:

• Customization of tabs: We’re all very diverse in what products we use, particularly on mobile. Now you can customize the tabs you want on Google.com. Go to the More tab and press “Custom tabs” to select your favorite three Google mobile products.
• New and improved Gmail: The latest version of Gmail delivers messages to your inbox without the need for you to refresh it. Also, if you need to write an email, we help you complete the address — you only need to type out the first few letters of your contact. Read more about pre-fetching and address auto-complete on the Gmail blog.
• New and improved Calendar: A calendar can be one of the most important things on a phone. Now Google Calendar is faster and has a month view.
• iGoogle for the iPhone: One of the most common requests to date has been to include personalized modules. We’re happy to announce a new iPhone-optimized version of iGoogle that mobilizes all of the modules you know and love. Simply click on the iGoogle link from the Google.com home page or go to www.igoogle.com.

Some of you have been wondering why we’ve made this only for the iPhone. The entire experience is made possible by the iPhone’s general usability (touch and high-resolution) and the capabilities of its web browser (AJAX, CSS). It’s also pretty cool that the iPhone has an unlimited data plan so you never have to worry about cost when you’re browsing the web. And we’re working on making this version of Google.com available outside the U.S.

To get to the latest Google on your iPhone, just go to Google.com on your iPhone or iPod Touch web browser. Let us know what you think!

The iPhone is a ‘beautiful breakthrough computer’, the Wall Street Journal has declared. Folks are queuing up for it already, in New York. The company has no plans to launch the iPhone in Europe or Asia anytime soon. But that doesn’t mean we won’t get our grubby fingers on it…

DNA reports: According to dealers in Mumbai’s Heera Panna shopping centre, the city’s largest wholesaler in mobile handsets and iPods - the grey market has already placed orders for around 30-40 iPhones. The plans are to hawk it at prices that are Rs 7000-8000 more than the US base price of $500 (ie Rs 20,000).

Yes, the phone is currently rigged out to work with a single operator - AT & T - but never fear.

As Business Standard reports: Grey market operators say they can ‘unlock’ the phone for just Rs 1000 to Rs 1500 so that it can be used on any network in India. “Unlocking the iPhone isn’t tough,” said a dealer in central Delhi.

Cool, isn’t it? But you have to ask, why won’t Apple just go ahead and sell the phone officially? In India, and anywhere else in the world where there’s a hunger for it??

Phir wahi bhool?
Fact is, India has never been a priority market for Apple. In the old days, ok, it did not matter.

The computer I worked on at my first job was a Mac. In the early 90s that was the ONLY computer any self respecting advertising agency or publishing house used for design work.

Today, there are still a few Mac fanatics - but very few. We embraced the more plebian but affordable PC, learnt to live with system errors and the Mac became a forgotten first crush.

Now, Macs are available at better prices but few consider buying them . There is just not enough exposure or marketing.

Then there’s the iPod. In India, it sells mainly through the grey market. Official Apple resellers are few and far between and anyways, the pricing is a complete turn off. Again Apple itself did little to market the iPod. Khareedna hai to khareedo - aapki marzi.

The result is, the iPod is popular but other brands like Creative - and even generic mp3 players - have caught on too. With Sony marketing its Walkman phones and Nokia its ‘Music Phones’ a lot of young people don’t even think they need an iPod.

A couple of weeks ago, for the first time, I noticed an ad from Apple in the Bombay Times. “If it ain’t iPod, it ain’t music’ or some such headline and I thought,”Um… isn’t this too little, too late?”

The moral of the story is that Apple is a guru at producing these amazing products. But then it would rather let them sell without much effort, especially overseas.

However we now have a global gizmo monster, hungry for the goods. India is Nokia’s third largest market in terms of net sales. Of course, the monochrome and low-end colour handset segment (below Rs 3000) account for over 60% of the market.

But there is demand for high end phones in a country with 178 million mobile phone users. And it’s not just pricing that’s a deterrent when it comes to upgrades.

Many of us have checked out the N series but found it to be lacking somewhere. The market for a really beautiful and user friendly smartphone is still wide open. The iPhone could be the answer but if Apple chooses to ignore us, we may well embrace the clones which are sure to follow.

Why make the same mistake, once again?