'A future for the masses'

Giving a frank and candid keynote address at the World Mobile Congress 2011, in Barcelona, Google CEO Eric Schmidt ended almost every sentence with Google's privacy catch-all - "with your permission".

While not making any groundbreaking announcements, Schmidt did offer perspective on what Google is currently doing and its vision for the future.

"Who would have thought that today we'd end up with more than 300 000 Android acquisitions a day - and that number's growing very fast," said Schmidt, adding that there are now 150 000 Android apps, a number that has tripled in the last year. "Android is the fastest growing mobile platform in the world."

Schmidt thinks the world will be reaching a point where "technology serves humans, and not the other way around".

Pointing to criticism that computers are a cold substitute for actual human contact, Schmidt said that such statements are actually wrong.

"I'd like to offer a happiness theorem - that computers are here to take care of us. Everything we are doing is so that I can spend more time doing the things I actually want to be doing, like spending time with my family," explained Schmidt.

Turning to the trend of smartphones overtaking PCs, Schmidt said: "It's already over - we know that smartphones are the new destination. And PCs aren't going to catch up." He was alluding to the fact that smartphones have started out-selling PCs as of last week.

"Developers are thinking mobile first, because this is where the scale is, it's where the growth is, it's where the platform is. It is reasonable to expect that the LTE platform roll-out this year will allow opportunity for applications that we can only imagine," said Schmidt.

During his address, the new Android video editing application for tablets, Movie Studio, was demonstrated on a Motorola Xoom tablet, running Honeycomb. The application allows for instant sharing to YouTube and other platforms.

According to Schmidt, 35 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute, and revenue has doubled in 2010. "We are finally able to monetise professional content at rates approaching what we need to be able to build significant businesses for those partners."

"Think of the goal of your phone as first a communication device, second a data and browsing platform, and third, why not think of it as a serendipity platform?

Adding to this, Schmidt described the possibilities of even more personal search capabilities ("with your permission") with intuitive functions that take information about a user's location and interests and instantly provide them with information it thinks they may need.

Schmidt used the example of a history-lover walking the streets of Barcelona, and being given instantly relevant information about their surroundings via their phone, without them having to ask for it.

Schmidt said that, with a mobile phone, “one is never lost, never lonely and never bored”.

"A lifetime of entertainment and knowledge is available to you, all because of the ability we have to know what you care about and to get that information to you."

"What's most important about this future is that it is a future for the masses, not for the elites. We are proudest of our work in spreading mobile devices," said Schmidt, describing how information has historically been the preserve of the rich and educated.

"In the next year, two billion people will enter the mobile conversation for the first time, because of the things all of us have done to enable them."

When questioned further on his vision for emerging mobile markets, Schmidt said that considering mobile penetration and growth rates in the emerging world, telecoms is the most stable business in those economies. He did, however, acknowledge the problems of already overloaded networks, high connectivity costs, and expensive devices.

"The expensive phones we have today may be made available almost free in the future, giving those people the power that we take for granted," said Schmidt.

"I hope that working together, we can all fulfil what I perceive to be an extraordinary vision of what technology can do to give mankind a better experience and to make the world a better place."