In a December letter to the SEC (recently made public), Google makes some interesting predictions about the future of advertising.
“For example, a few years from now, we and other companies could be serving ads and other content on refrigerators, car dashboards, thermostats, glasses, and watches, to name just a few possibilities.”
Another interesting statement reads:
“It is increasingly challenging to define what exactly a “mobile” platform is from period to period — and what it will be going forward. For example, initially, most industry observers would have included tablets (in addition to handsets) in their definition of “mobile”. This was consistent with our internal view, as evidenced by the fact that the mobile revenue run-rates we released in the third quarters of 2011 and 2012 included both handset and tablet revenue. However, as tablets gained momentum in the market, it became clear to us that their usage had much more in common with desktops than with handsets.”
The shifting nature of mobile may be why Google is throwing so many darts at the board (think wearables like watches, glasses, etc). Clearly Google is struggling to find the next category of mobile devices that will help drive its advertising revenue. It understands that missing the boat could be a catastrophic misstep for the search giant.