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Sergey Brin’s iPhone Adventure in Davos

By Saul Hansell January 31, 2008 7:16 pm January 31, 2008 7:16 pm

For a company that is busy building its own cellphone operating system, Google shared a lot of love for the iPhone on its earnings-related conference call today. The most heartwarming story came from Sergey Brin, the company’s co-president, who said that he uses an iPhone himself. He described the value of the My Location feature of Google Maps on the iPhone, which can figure out (more or less) where you are even though the iPhone can’t receive G.P.S. navigational signals.

“I was at a conference in Switzerland,” he said, presumably referring to the World Economic Forum conference in Davos. “I was able to find a really small hotel, then switch over to the satellite view on my phone to figure out I needed to take a funicular to get up there. It was a really amazing experience.”

Eric Schmidt, Google’s chief executive, is of course on Apple’s board of directors. And Google has been putting a lot of effort into its applications for the iPhone, perhaps because these will serve as models for what it will offer on its own Android phones. Google has said that it is now getting more Web traffic from the iPhone than from any other type of mobile device.

“We are particularly interested in looking at the iPhone because the Web browsing experience is so good, and because of the optimization work we did,” said Jonathan Rosenberg, Google’s senior vice president for product management.

An analyst asked Mr. Schmidt for his view of the iPhone. He didn’t mention his position on Apple’s board. Rather, he said the phone — and others like it — will bring in more dollars for Google.

“The iPhone is the first of a whole generation of products that will be much more search intensive,” he said. “With those search opportunities comes ad monetization.”

The fondue shack at the top of the funicular can buy the first ad.

Comments are no longer being accepted.
bö February 1, 2008 · 3:23 am

actually, it isn’t a “fondue shack” but the quite big “hotel schatzalp” above davos.
here’s the website: //www.schatzalp.ch/
and here’s the location:
//maps.google.ch/maps?f=q&hl=de&geocode=&q=schatzalp,+schweiz&sll=46.800853,9.815136&sspn=0.00257,0.005021&ie=UTF8&ll=46.797004,9.8174&spn=0.041131,0.080338&t=h&z=14&iwloc=addr&om=0

cheers, bö(switzerland)
C. Reaves February 1, 2008 · 4:30 am

Can you please explain to me why someone doing a Google map search on his iPhnone in Switzerland is “heartwarming”? …or for that matter even an “adventure”?
Dick George February 1, 2008 · 7:43 am

Will be nice to see Google unlock the iPhone as well as all the other PDAs… it really is ABOUT Time! Closed phones are so past.
KTEvent February 1, 2008 · 9:02 am

Hmmmmm. How about an Apple/Google merger? The two most innovative companies…. hardware/software and Internet solutions …. bust up the MSFT hegemony…. allow the companies to avoid overlapping r&d…. technology’s best mind!
Gregg February 1, 2008 · 9:58 am

Wow, Brin used a phone to view a map and figure out where to go. What a revolution. Nobody’s ever done that before. Sigh… is Google running out of new ideas already? Maybe Brin should be using his iPhone to help Google find its way back to meeting its financial forecasts, not some small hotel in Switzerland.
iAndroid February 1, 2008 · 1:06 pm

Certainly seems that instead of looking at braLoadingnd new hardware, Google’s developing the iPhone into the gPhone as soon as Apple is done with their lame contract with AT&T. Rumors like that should keep GOOG’s price irrationally high.
OS11 February 1, 2008 · 1:45 pm

Several of the above comments appear to be from persons who have never used an iPhone. Brin’s “amazing experience”, is directly tied to the iPhone is an “amazing device”.

No other Phone, past, present or in the 10 year timeframe will match it. A huge screen, with MULTI-touch, not just a simple “one touch” screen explains why Brin is enamored with the iPhone.

It’s probably the most complex, but easiest to use device humans have ever built, and 10’s of years ahead of any other Cell or Smartphone out there. Apple knows hardware and software better than anyone else, and the iPhone certainly shows their genius level achievement.

–
The Doctor February 1, 2008 · 1:56 pm

Sergey Brin’s been using a data-heavy application on a netowrk ourside of AT&T. A hefty bill laden with AT&T’s roaming data charges awaits his return to the States. This will wipe out most of Google’s profits.

PS: Google Maps has been available on J2ME-based phones (even the unlocked ones! My God!) for years. You don’t need the iPhone to find yourself or anything else.
Ed & LoriLei Kramer February 1, 2008 · 4:11 pm

I would have been lost on a recent trip to Tucson, had it not been for the Map feature and Google, Then there were the e-mail messages I was able to pick up and answer. Not too shabby for a 79 year old Apple love without a laptop.
FastEddiek
C. Reaves February 1, 2008 · 4:31 pm

Whatever you do OS11, never ever go near the Kool-Aid shelves in the supermarket.
Michael February 2, 2008 · 2:32 am

Yeah, so amazing it is to experience not talking to a person to find your way to your hotel.

I was one of the first ipod buyers and I felt so unique having earbuds stuck in my ears, empowered by the musical separation from everything before me. Now I just want to walk around NY or SF and pull them all out.
TS February 2, 2008 · 5:21 am

@The Doctor:

> Google Maps has been available on J2ME-based phones

Yeah, I’ve got it on mine, but how often do I use it? The interface doesn’t make it a compelling app to run on my J2ME phone. Having seen Google Maps on the iPhone — I now cannot wait to get out of my contact so I can get one. It’s all about interface and design leading to usability. The iPhone makes maps palatable, my J2ME phone doesn’t (even if it’s an unlocked, high-end phone).
Charlie February 2, 2008 · 6:44 am

This is Times-worthy only because Sergey has billions and billions.

“Where is the crowd? I must hurry after them! For I am their leader!!” (Robespierre during the French Revolution)
Ted T. February 2, 2008 · 12:27 pm

OS11: “No other Phone, past, present or in the 10 year timeframe will match it.” {the iPhone}

The Doctor: “PS: Google Maps has been available on J2ME-based phones (even the unlocked ones! My God!) for years. You don’t need the iPhone to find yourself or anything else.”

Can we please agree to cut the hyperbole and the absurd nonsense? No one can predict what will be happening in tech 2 years from now, much less ten. And today’s iPhone will be surpassed soon enough — by newer Apple products if nothing else.

As for claims that other phones have been doing what the iPhone has for years now — don’t make us laugh. You either have never used an iPhone, or you are being willfully stupid. Yes maps have been available on other phones, but the implementation is night and day.

The iPhone didn’t become the number one mobile device in web browsing statistics within months of its launch by accident — it did because its software is orders of magnitude better than anything else out there, and so far all attempts at ‘iPhone killers” have been sad jokes.
D. Bisset February 2, 2008 · 3:01 pm

Right, because if you think the iPhone is great then you *MUST* be “drinking the KoolAid”…

Although Os11 comments were a little over the top, I would agree. MY latest blackberry can get google maps, but i it’s not as easy to use as an iPhone. And what what phone, past or present, can show you where you are in one click? I’m cerious.

Those who say “phones had Google maps” before simply haven’t used the iPhone or it’s user interface doesn’t register. Maybe some people want more complicated interfaces – it’s a free country after all. Oh no, wait – they must be drinking someone else’s KoolAid. That must be it! :-)
os12 February 2, 2008 · 3:10 pm

Hey C. Reaves, no need, after you’ve taken all the angry hating kool-aid, os11 and i will drink the happy loving kool-aid.

By the way MSFT has come out with a new version of vista, you better go out and complete your collection.
RON February 2, 2008 · 6:45 pm

Why is that for the past couple of years no-one knows where they are or how to get there?
C. Reaves February 3, 2008 · 9:46 am

I don’t hate Apple or Apple products. I just don’t think they are the most wonderfully perfect things on the planet that can never, ever, ever be surpassed or even equaled…whew! Apple products are better in some ways but also have their faults, sometimes big ones. Some people, however, have drunk the Jobs Kool-Aid and are blinded to reality. And Brin finding his hotel using an iPhone written up as an “Amazing Heartwarming iPhone Adventure” is a perfect example.
Rich_grace February 5, 2008 · 1:20 pm

Can we all agree to stop sucking up to rich 30-year-old plutocrats who were lucky enough to be standing around with a bucket the day it rained gold?
osisbs February 5, 2008 · 2:44 pm

All of this fighting and negativity is coming from one simple and unsolvable fact:
There are certain people who want to pull something out of a box, turn it on, and get on with their life.
There are others who want to pull it out of the box, open the back, rip out pc boards and chips, jack around with it, and do this all at discount prices.
The first group are Apple users, the second group PC users who have never, ever in their entire lives, left things as they are or paid full screaming retail for anything, ever. They are not overwhelmed by an instruction manual the size of the Houston Yellowpages. In fact, they want 24 more F-Keys on their keyboard for obscure functions nobody has thought of.
When these people see Mac or Jobs or Apple in the headline of a news story they should just keep moving along to the sale ads. Nothing to see here, keep moving.
sean February 6, 2008 · 1:03 am

the web browsing experience is awesome on the iphone but with out flash/java support, I can’t access some of my favorite sites (cnn.com etc.,) and watch news videos. I hope Apple does something about it. otherwise they will see their impressive lead with iphone lost in no time.
instanton February 6, 2008 · 11:39 am

Rich 30-year old plutocrats is not quite a fair description of a Stanford graduate student who had the intellectual capability to figure out (with his friend Page) a new page-ranking search algorithm. If such people don’t get rich, who should? Your favorite options trader?
shane March 19, 2008 · 2:19 am

YOu know you Windows people have been drinking the MSFT kookaid for years otherwise there’d be no explanation for why you use and defend so a bloated, ridiculous operating system such as windows. Oh, the view from the throngs of people who haven’t bothered to purchase one of MSFT’s 10 upgrade paths to VISTA. Give me break with the Steve Jobs and the Apple bashing for a group of herd following whiners you love to point out that Windows won long ago in market share terms you sure love to spend a lot of energy bashing Apple. When was the last time you actually used an Apply product, I mean really not 15 mins. in a store and then you proclaimed yourself to be an authority. Also, Apple has been outselling all of the Windows PC box makers for several quarters now. Macs are ouselling Windows PCs. I’m so bored with the Apple bashing coming from a bunch of herd followers. Can anyone say, MOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Christina Dietz April 25, 2008 · 11:01 pm

I own an iPhone. It has been amazing all winter here in Colorado, staying just warm enough to comfort me in the cold, but not so hot to run down the battery.

Happiness is a warm iPhone, yes it is.
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