Ice Cream Sandwich, Google's newest version of Android, isn't far off now.
"We're really looking forward to our announcements with Samsung next week, which I think will be very exciting," Google CEO Larry Page shared yesterday during the company's third-quarter earnings call. "We see Android growing like gangbusters, and we don't see anything that's going to stop that."
Earlier in the call, according to a transcript from Seeking Alpha, Page called the growth of Android "mind-boggling," and said he's "super excited" about Ice Cream Sandwich, adding, "You won't believe what we managed to get done in this release."
Google, with Samsung, cancelled its planned introduction of Google's newest self-branded handset and the launch of Ice Cream Sandwich at CTIA last week and instead plan to debut it at the Asia D conference in Hong Kong, which starts Oct. 19.
While search and ads are Google's primary money makers, its mobile and product businesses were focuses of the discussion. Among the information Google shared:
- Q3 revenue was up 33% year-on-year, with quarterly revenue was just short of $10 billion.
- There are now more than 300 Android device models on the market, 36 OEMs manufacturing Android smartphones and Android devices are offered by more than 215 mobile operators. By early summer, Google was activating half a million Android handsets each day.
- More than 190 million Android devices have been activated globally.
- Google+ now has more than 40 million users, who have uploaded more than 3.4 billion photos to the networking site.
- In 90 days, Google+ gained 100 new features; users can now search Google+; and there have been Hangouts on the air and at events, such as with Will.i.am in Central Park.
- Chrome now has more than 200 million users.
- Google Maps has launched in 40 new countries, bringing its total to 130.
- To simplify its offerings and streamline its income, Google shut down 20 products during the quarter, including Sidewiki, Google Pack and Google Notebook.
- Google's mobile business has grown two and a half times in the last 12 months, to a "run rate of over $2.5 billion."
- Google is making strong headway into the enterprise app space. Companies including Goodyear and Japan's Softbankd are "going Google," said Chief Business Officer Nikesh Arora, and Google recently deployed apps to 450,000 teachers in Morocco.
- During the quarter, Google Wallet shipped to the Sprint Nexus S 4G phone and Google started working with Visa, American Express and Discover, to add them to future versions of the app. Page added that the Nexus S with Sprint has "sold out and has had tremendous demand. And we think that the customers who have gotten that [Google Wallet] experience are amazingly excited about it."
- Google still sees enormous potential in You Tube. "YouTube is just tremendously successful. It's growing gangbusters in every way. And we see that site is redefining the way we think about video," said Page. "I'd also note that it's very small percentage of people's overall video usage still."
- Regarding "closing the gap" between Google's traditional search and mobile businesses, Page emphasized how the phones are improving and particularly their location-based capabilities. Users experiences on their phones, said Page, could actually better than on their computers.
"I mean, the phone knows where you are, and can help you even when you're mobile and so on. So ... we definitely see the experience on mobile improving greatly, especially with Android."
