After its quarterly earnings was mistakenly published early (consequently leading to billions of dollars being knocked off its value), Google chief Larry Page spoke about the firm's success in the mobile industry.
Page, who was speaking with a hoarse voice during a conference call with analysts due to his recovery from an unspecified illness, confirmed Google is due to generate over $8 billion from its mobile business in 2012, representing a considerable increase from the $2.5 billion it made last year.
He noted that Google, which is 14 years old, enjoyed its "first $14 billion revenue quarter; not bad for a teenager."
"Today we live in a world of abundance," Page said when explaining how we feel naked without our smartphones. He stressed that he is consistently switching between his Nexus 7 tablet, Nexus smartphone and the newly announced Chromebook. "You should all run out and buy the Nexus 7 tablet for $199."
The aforementioned technology is disruptive, with Google being "super well-placed to take advantage of these disruptions. Why? Because our search query volumes have grown this quarter as measured year over year," he stated. "And we are seeing tremendous innovation in advertising which, I believe, will help us monetize mobile queries more effectively than desktop today. Indeed our mobile monetization per query is already a significant fraction compared to desktop."
As for Google's main money maker in terms of its involvement in the mobile market, its "big bet" on Android has paid off, Page stressed. "Most people thought we were nuts" when it announced its plan for the mobile platform several years ago. There are now more than half a billion Android devices activated, with 1.3 million more activated on a daily basis.
