We’re here at Mobile World Congress awaiting Mr. Eric Schmidt to begin his keynote. Last year, Schmidt gave his talk to boisterous crowd, with some users even tossing a few boos in his direction. Everyone looks polite enough this year, and the Google front-man is due out shortly. Hit the jump to hear exactly what Mr. Schmidt has to say. Enoy!
12:51PM:That’s it folks! Thanks for tuning in!
12:51PM:A: “The issues of privacy is very, very complicated and there is never one answer. Sometimes it’s the most import thing, like in the instance of national security. I think people will adopt it and we’ll be fine from a regulatory perspective.”
12:50PM:Last Q: How can you get people on board with these new features that require personal information?
12:50PM:A: “We believe that cloud computing can come to the desktop and we’ve done that with Chrome OS. It’s virus free, managed from the cloud, but won’t run your apps. It is something to think about and is in beta now.”
12:49PM:Q: Will you bring Android to the PC?
12:48PM:A: “We’ve not yet come up with the killer education app. There are many incumbencies in EDU that resist change.”
12:48PM:Q: Can you speak about how Google can open up education to greater learning opportunities?
12:47PM:A: “We try to publish a robust set of APIs and publish a spec of baseline like the Nexus S. It’s important to establish a minimum so we have common applications.”
12:46PM:Q: How do you develop SDKs with such a variety of devices?
12:44PM:Sorry, the last Q and A got reversed :)
12:44PM:Q: What do you think about the Microsoft Nokia deal?
12:44PM:A: “We wanted them to run Android and the offer is still open. They chose the other guys. We think Android is a great match for Nokia.”
12:43PM:A: I think our main competition is Microsoft with Bing. It’s very good… sometimes a little too good although we addressed that in a blog post last week. There’s no evidence that Facebook has had any effect on our advertisement business.”
12:42PM:Q: Do you believe that Facebook is your main competitor in business ads?
12:40PM:A: “Well both Google and MWC will be a lot bigger. In your lifetimes there are one or two technological transitions. So it’s reasonable to expect that the world be even more mobile. The most interesting thing that is occurring is the development of A.I. on top of some of the technologies that I’ve been talking to you about. What we can not predict is the new killer app, which is what this is so exciting.”
12:39PM:Q: How do you see Google in 10-years?
12:39PM:A: “The last block of IPv4 addresses will be sold in the next 6 months. The general consensus is most of the modern equipment will function just fine. But the things in-between, the things that have been installed and never upgraded may cause issues. We will be doing a number of tests to make sure that IPv6 is ready. We have to deal with this now.”
12:37PM:Q: What about IPv6 on the mobile?
12:35PM:Q: “I think HTML5 be used to make programs, especially for mobile devices, in the future. This is great for developers because it unifies desktop and mobile.”
12:34PM:Q: What do you think of HTML5?
12:33PM:A: Mr. Schmidt sort of dodged this question, he just explained what Chrome was.
12:33PM:Schmidt just said that the next iteration of Android “which will start with an ‘i’ and be named after a dessert will unify the platform and we typically run on a 6 month release cycle.”
12:31PM:Q: When will we see devices with Chrome OS?
12:29PM:A: “We like Twitter and I like to tweet.”
12:29PM:Q: Are you interested in Twitter?
12:28PM:A: “There’s another mega-scale opportunity in front of us. Europe is working to standardize on tap and pay systems using NFC. The speed at which electronics transaction can occur will revolutionize payment. Pair NFC with GPS and you can really harness advertising, location, and payments.”
12:26PM:Q: What’s your vision for Google in regards to payments?
12:26PM:A: “We have an anti-fragmentation clause with all carriers so I’ll challenge you a little bit there. But the way we hold it all together is with the Market. Giving the base APIs the same ability and not mandating from afar what carriers do.”
12:25PM:Q: Asking about fragmentation from a programers standpoint.
12:24PM:A: “The tools that will allow us to to targeted, TV quality ads is the next great frontier in advertising. Let me reiterate we’ll do this all with your permission and without violating your privacy. There are many companies involved in making these new display based ads.”
12:23PM:Q: Can you expand on personalized ads in the future?
12:21PM:“Thank you so very much.” Okay, we’re going to the Q&A.
12:21PM:“Technology should give us time back. That’s what I’m most proud of.”
12:20PM:“Cars should drive themselves. This will happen in the next few decades, not years, but I’d be willing to bet your car could do a better job driving you home when you’re drunk then you could. Am I right?”
12:19PM:“You’re never lonely, there are always people with you. You’re never bored because there are things to do and we can suggest things for you to do. You’re never out of ideas because we can suggest new ideas that we think you will like.”
12:17PM:“With mobile devices you never forget, you never get lost, and you can learn anything. When’s the last time you’ve had a good “lost” experience? You haven’t, because your phone knows where you are down to the meter, and pretty soon it will be down to the cm due to the accuracy of these signals.”
12:15PM:“Global warming, AIDS, all these problems can be solved or aided through the fundamental transparency that computer science and the internet.”
12:14PM:We’ve shifted gears yet again, we’re talking about the Internet.
12:12PM:“We have more than 120 million Chrome users. A 6x increase year-over-year.”
12:11PM:“Search is fundamental understanding about what you mean. Saying ‘what’s the wether like’ actually means ‘what should I wear where I am'”
12:10PM:“What happens next with serach? It’s going to become more personal. With your permission, the information you share with us will allow us to taylor results better to you.”
12:09PM:Eric is back talking: “You can think of what we’re trying to do at Google is to get you to something very fast, to get you back to being human.”
12:08PM:Gil is wrapping up. Nothing ground breaking with Movie Studio but definitely a solid addition to Android tablets.
12:07PM:You have the option to export your movie when its done in full HD, rendered on the tablet. You can then share the movie over YouTube.
12:05PM:We’re seeing the app in action. It’s pretty standard so far. Timeline on the bottom, preview window on trop, add effects, add titles, add transitions, reorder clips, insert background audio.”
12:03PM:“Today I’m going to demonstrate for you Movie Studio, a new application for Android tablets from the ground up. It will allow users to edit video.”
12:02PM:It’s the XOOM.
12:02PM:About to see a demo from Gil (a Google employee): an application on an “interesting new device.”
12:01PM:“Start thinking about that levels of smartness, location awareness, and — with your permission — share with your friends.”
12:00PM:“Why is my phone taking care of my health? Think about it, it’s always there and it’s always one. Why can’t my phone talk to my friends phone to figure out which traffic route is faster? These things will all be possible because of company’s like Google and the cloud.”
11:58AM:“The future of the platform we are all building together will help us learn new things, meet new people, and go to new places.”
11:56AM:“What’s interesting now with the roll out of LTE, you can expect to get sustained speeds of 8-10Mbps. This will create an opportunity for another set of applications that we can’t even image.”
11:56AM:“The average connection speed for smartphones increased by 60% in two year, even though some of you don’t feel that way. It is because your demand has gone up higher that that.”
11:54AM:Talking about the marvels or smartphones today. Capacity, speed, apps, etc.
11:54AM:Schmidt pulls out Nexus S.
11:53AM:“What’s interesting about developers today, is they think mobile first because that’s where the growth is.” (We know this is all over the place, Schmidt is bouncing around quite a bit).
11:52AM:“The goal of everything we’re doing is so I can spend more time with the people in my life, exploring new places, and living life.”
11:51AM:“I’ve come to a new view. I think it’s going to get to the point where technology is going to serve humans and not the other way around.”
11:50AM:“I particularly like coming to Europe because they think ahead. 100% of EU citizens to have broadband by 2012, speeds of over 100Mbps to all citizens by 2020.”
11:49AM:Schmidt is on stage. More that 150,00 applications in the app store. Tripled in 9 months.
11:48AM:Seeing a video of global Android activations. It’s pretty cool. Showing heat map of where the devices have the most penetration. Huge spike when Galaxy S launched.
11:46AM:Lights are down. Here we go.
11:42AM:Andy Rubin just sat down about 5 feet from us. he’s holding a 10-inch tablet. Make and model unknown.
11:22AM:The stage crew is setting up a demo rig. At minimum we’re going to see some live demos.
11:17AM:We’re in row two here. So I’m not sure how easily we’ll be able to sneak photos… but we’ll try. The event is scheduled to start at 5:45 CET, 11:45 ET.
11:11AM:So here’s an interesting turn of events… security just came around and said that Schmidt has requested that no photos be taken at the keynote. Anyone seen wielding a camera will be escorted out by security. This will make live blogging a little bit easier for me, but unfortunately… it will also make visualizing what’s going down harder for you. I’ll try and channel my inner Robert Frost to really paint the picture for you!
