We Want Media

So apparently Google has plans to roll out a new mobile phone. I admit I'm not much of a tech geek, but I still think I’m missing what is just so great about this thing.

First, other mobile carriers already offer Google’s services. What the company seems to be promoting is the phone’s expansion of it’s Google Maps and Google Earth features, allowing users to find things like cinemas and restaurants in their area. “Tony Cooper, a telecoms consultant at Deloitte, explains, noting ‘It could bring in location-based searches like "Find a Thai restaurant in my area,'” according to The Observer, UK. I guess what I don’t understand is why this is something new. This service just doesn’t seem especially innovative to me—even I can already do all this stuff on my old, crappy, free-upgrade cell phone.

For the record, I already know where all the cinemas are in my neighborhood, strangely enough. And if I wanted to find a good Thai restaurant, recommendations from Google probably wouldn’t be the first source I checked out. I guess with all the hype, I was expecting a little bit more.