Well, it finally did!

The new Google Mobile App for iPhone just hit the iTunes App Store:

You can also change the colors of your iPhone app, turn on improved voice searching, and, get this, the new app supports Australians!

Huh?

Yeah, apparently…

…you can now choose your spoken language or accent. For example, if you’re Australian but live in London, you can improve the recognition accuracy by selecting Australian in the Voice Search settings. And now both Mandarin and Japanese are supported languages as well.

I wonder if there’s a setting for Brits living in North Carolina–cos you all know how strange that accent sounds!

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Why am I excited? Well, it’s because I am not an AT&T customer and won’t be for the foreseeable future. So what? Then that means I won’t have an iPhone to replace my red-headed stepchild, 15th cousin twice removed, black sheep of the touch screen smart phone family BlackBerry Storm. As a pure stop-gap measure to being included in Apple’s app-mania I have purchased a new iPod Touch. Are you following here?

So let’s do the math. If I don’t want to go with AT&T because I think there is enough evidence that their network may indeed suck I can still have iPhone fun (to a degree) but then be able to have the potential iPhone killer, an Android phone to replace my BlackBerry? I’m in! And now since Chief Googler Schmidt proclaims the Age of Android is about to fire up well I may be positioned to be the cool kid on the block! Woo hoo!

OK so it’s Friday and I am a little worn out. Here’s the news from TechCrunch

During Google’s third quarter earnings conference call today, one message came out loud and clear: Google’s mobile strategy is starting to pay off. “Android adoption is about to explode,” declared CEO Eric Schmidt, explaining that all the “necessary conditions” are set for growth: There are now 12 Android phones out there (most recently the Motorola Cliq ) across 32 carriers in 26 countries.

As a Verizon customer I am ready to trade in my Storm for the Android phones they have on tap. While it may be a little risky due to Android’s early stage of product development and testing I am ready to give it a shot.

Google would love to see that for sure as evidenced by this quote

In response to a question about how material mobile searches are to Google, CFO Patrick Pichette replied:

Again, we don’t give the detail numbers. On a quarter over quarter basis, mobile searches grew 30% on Google. It tells you something about the mobile space, the smartphones, and how they are transformative. They are basically transforming how people live on a mobile basis. If we move forward the adoption of these mobile phones by lowering the cost because it is open source, think of how many searches [that will produce].

The sound of Google’s cash registers ringing as a result of mobile search will be deafening. Regardless, I am ready to be converted. I am ready to be further assimilated into the Goog. Take me to your leader!

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ClickZ reports on some information passed along at the Mobile Ad Summit in New York as Matt Crowley, CMO, AT&T Interactive talked about this approach

AT&T Interactive has completed development of a WAP application that will open up ad opportunities for search listings seen by non-smartphone users at Yellowpages.com.

Crowley briefly mentioned the new app during a larger discussion on how to target mobile consumers. Later that day, Crowley said the app, dubbed “YPmobile,” establishes dedicated top-of-page sponsored search inventory where it will deliver relevant promos for AT&T Interactive’s pay-per-call advertising clients, as well as its Yellowpages.com advertisers who pay to be featured.

It’s interesting to note that AT&T had this WAP app (let’s for fun call it their WAPplication) as Crowley put it, “sitting around”. Huh? At what point did they realize that not everyone actually has a smart phone and that there was a lot of potential being left on the table, or at least sitting around it? I have to chuckle as big because big companies probably forget about more that they already have developed than most smaller companies develop in total. Too bad the big boys often are asleep at the wheel.

Moving forward there is a general sentiment that developing apps to satisfy the wide variety of phones and platforms out there is a challenge.
Although the growth of smartphones and the app market to support them were big topics at the event, AT&T’s item underscored the fact that reaching consumers on older, “legacy” cell phones remains a formidable challenge for the interactive marketing community.

The obstacles to standardizing experiences between older and newer phones is not the only challenge for developers of mobile apps. Even within the smartphone category, it remains difficult to build experiences for multiple devices.

So it appears that as we may actually be truly entering the age of mobile for real it will not be without its pitfalls and trouble spots. As these obstacles are hit moving forward, it will be up to everyone to step back and remain realistic about just how far and how fast we can become the mobile Internet society that has already been ordained as reality.

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While creating names for groups of people can be fun that particular set of names isn’t very flattering aside from the collaboration concept. Let’s look a little closer.

First, I will approach this a little differently than the MediaPost article because when I was done reading it I was pretty disappointed. Here’s why. This great study that gives us the ‘latest and greatest’ updates on our mobile lifestyle was based on phone interviews that were conducted in December of 2007! Of the total 3,500 people contacted over 1,500 of those were part of following up on research that was conducted in early 2006. This detail was reserved for the last paragraph which took the shine off these “new” findings for sure. We live in an era where our economy can shed millions of jobs in just a few short months so I personally think that unless this was a typo we can assume this data is already very different.

Back to the findings. While still in the minority the percentage of people finding themselves more dependent on their mobile connection to the net (40%) is a pretty intense group. At the time the other 60% were tethered to their desktop access but not real ready to make the jump to a 24/7 mobile connection lifestyle. We’ll highlight the groups back in the day that were the largest percentages.

For mobile users

• Digital Collaborators: (8% of the population) Very much about continual information exchange with others, as they frequently interact with others to create and share content or express themselves.
• Ambivalent Networkers: (7%) Extremely active in using social networking sites and accessing digital resources “on the go,” yet aren’t always thrilled to be contacted by others.
• Roving Nodes: (9%) Active managers of their social lives via basic applications-texting and emailing-to connect with others, pass along information, and improve personal productivity.

Stationary media users include:

• Desktop Veterans: (13%) Tech-oriented, but in a “year 2004″ kind of way. They consume online information and connect with others through traditional means such as email on a high-speed home connection.
• Tech Indifferent: (10%) Have limited online access at home, and while most have cell phones, they bristle at their intrusiveness.
• Off the Network: (14%) Lack the tools for connecting digitally, with neither online access or cell phones.

So while interesting, this “new” study seems dated already. What is your view from a totally unscientific perspective on what percentage of the population OVERALL is more dependent on mobile web usage? How do you categorize yourself? Is your mobile web usage a dependency or a fun diversion? How long will it take for everyone to have a computer hanging off their ear when they leave their home in the morning? Oh yea, and what will it all mean to we Internet marketers?

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