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Poll finds nearly 80 percent of U.S. adults go online (Reuters)

Four out of five U.S. adults go online now, according to a new Harris Poll. The survey, which polled 2,062 adults in July and October, found that 79 percent of adults — about 178 million — go online, spending an average 11 hours a week on the Internet. "We're up to almost 80 of adults who now are online, or are somehow gaining access to the Internet. That's a pretty impressive figure," said Regina Corso, director of the Harris Poll. The results reflect a steady rise since 2000, when 57 percent of adults polled said they went online. In 2006, the number was 77 percent. When Harris Interactive, a market research firm, first began tracking online use among adults in 1995, the group found that only nine percent of the population — or 17.5 million — said they went online. The poll also found that adults are spending more time online at home and at work, up two percent each at 72 percent and 37 percent respectively, from 2006. More dramatically, 31 percent of those surveyed said they went online elsewhere, up from 22 percent in 2006. "They are finding however possible to get online…A third of the people who are online, that's how they're getting there - some alternate way," said Corso. Demographically, the poll showed the online population aligning more with the general population. For example, the poll showed that 25 percent of adults who went online were between 18 and 29 years old — the same age group makes up 22 percent of the U.S. adult population. Hispanics make up 13 percent of the adult population, and also made up 13 percent of the online population surveyed. The poll also found that while online access is still dominated by younger adults, nine percent of those that go online are 65 years old and older, compared to the 16 percent of adults who are 65 and over. "We're getting closer. Every year it's getting more and more like the general population picture," said Corso. "Baby boomers are online. As they become more and more part of that population, we're going to see larger swings there." As the online population gets closer to 100 percent, Corso said the next step was to see how people are getting online. "It's not just a laptop or a desktop anymore. How many of these people are using some kind of hand held device for all of their online activity?" (Reporting by Solarina Ho)

It’s No ‘Gphone,’ But Google Launches Open Platform For Cell Phone Software (Investor’s Business Daily)

Instead of its own handset, the Web's No. 1 search service announced a free operating software for cell phones it hopes will boost mobile Internet use — and ad sales. Google is teaming up with 33 wireless carriers, handset makers and software developers to launch Android, which the group is calling the first full-fledged, open platform for mobile devices. Shares rose 2% to an all-time closing high of 725.65. If successful, Android could make cell phones much more useful for browsing the Web, finding information on the go and staying connected with others online. "The fundamental problem with the mobile phones people use today is that they don't have full-power browsers, so we have to do specialized engineering to get them on those devices," said Google CEO Eric Schmidt during a conference call on Monday. Many Partners, But No Ma Leading handset makers Nokia (NYSE: - ) and Motorola (NYSE: - ) and phone carriers such as Deutsche Telekom's (NYSE: - ) T-Mobile have joined the alliance and pledged to support's Google wireless operating system. The two biggest U.S. carriers, AT&T (NYSE: - ) and Verizon Wireless, were noticeably absent, though. The operating system, based on the open-source Linux platform and Sun Microsystems' (NasdaqGS: - ) Java software, likely will compete with other mobile phone software platforms, such as Microsoft's Windows Mobile, Palm OS and Nokia's own Symbian. Android will be available on cell phones beginning next year. But Schmidt stopped short of ruling out a Google-designed mobile device at some point. "We don't pre-announce products, and we also don't want to foreclose any options in the future," he said. Going Mobile Google is trying to bring its growing number of Internet services such as online video and social networking services to mobile devices. Android bolsters that goal by giving phones a full-power Web browser for a PC-like Internet experience, Schmidt said. Google and its partners also are hoping to attract other developers willing to build more applications on top of the mobile operating system, Schmidt said. Google gets almost all of its revenue from text-based ads that show up near search results. Schmidt recently said that adapting its ad service to mobile devices has been slower than Google would like. Android could change that, says Greg Sterling, principal for Sterling Market Intelligence, a research firm. "That is the Google M.O. — give it away and build usage and then monetize the usage," he said. "Ultimately that is where the economics will pay off for Google. It's kind of a case of enlightened self-interest." Google shares ad revenue with partner sites such as Time Warner's AOL and InterActiveCorp's (NasdaqGS: - ) that carry its ads. Such agreements would carry over into the mobile arena, Schmidt said. By 2011, sales of search-based text ads on mobile devices in the U.S. will reach $713.7 million, up from $2.1 million last year, says research firm eMarketer. Early response to Google's announcement shows that handset makers and wireless operators are taking note, says Charles Golvin, an analyst for Forrester Research. "All of the players in the wireless industry are looking very carefully at other business models to help drive additional revenue," he said. Google could also split revenues from sales of other services such as its Google Apps online software with handset developers and wireless carriers. How much depends on the level of partner adoption, says Sandeep Aggarwal, an analyst for Oppenheimer & Co. "The challenge for Google is whether they can bring more parties to this alliance," he said. If Android succeeds, Google would have less impetus to build its own mobile device, says Neil Mawston, analyst for Strategy Analytics, a research firm. "If the operating system flies off the shelf, they probably (won't) bother with a Gphone," he said.

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Google’s Android boosts enterprise mobile Linux (InfoWorld)

While IT project leaders hoping to incorporate or build Linux-based applications on handheld devices have long been frustrated by a wild variety of disparate operating systems and fragmented standards efforts, the industry clout brought to the table by Google and its array of partners could spur wider adoption of existing tools along with a new wave of development, according to industry analysts and other market watchers. With such partners as T-Mobile, HTC, Qualcomm, and Motorola aligned behind its efforts, Google's step into mobile Linux software could provide a more stable, viable option than existing mobile Linux efforts, said observers. Even though much of the initial focus on the Google Android announcement thus far has been aimed at new consumer applications that may be created based on the OS and the company's partnerships, enterprises that have been hoping to move Linux onto the wireless handset are likely thrilled to see the introduction, experts said. "We're heard a lot from IT managers about some enterprise-class solutions in areas like e-mail that haven't seen the light of day because there has been no real platform on which to deploy them," said Avi Greengart, analyst with Current Analysis. "Right now, all we have is a press release and a coalition making promises, but the fact that Google is behind this could give it a better chance top succeed than any other efforts we've seen in this space." The emergence of a more "robust" Linux-based OS at the hands of Google and its partners should trump existing efforts to push the open-source platform into more devices, the analyst said. None of the other handheld Linux standards groups — including LiMo Foundation, backed by industry giants Motorola, NEC, NTT DoCoMo, Panasonic, Samsung, and Vodafone — had been able to foster development comparable to Microsoft's Windows Mobile OS or RIM's BlackBerry platform in the enterprise, said Greengart. By launching its own OS and creating a new standards alliance that won't compete with any of the existing groups, Google may have tilted the mobile Linux landscape for good, he said. "If your developers are already familiar with the Linux kernel, this is something new and interesting to consider both for third-party and internally-developed applications, said Greengart. "Eventually, you could see a capability for organizations to customize devices as they see fit to an extent that's not possible today, which could include the creation of custom applications or the use of tools that previously haven't had a place in the enterprise," he said. "They may also fundamentally alter devices before giving them out to employees and change the default applications completely to match the way their companies work." Companies are excited about the platform but worry about security
Some companies involved directly in the mobile device applications market — and previous industry efforts backing mobile Linux that Greengart criticized — agreed that the Google announcement represents a significant opportunity for progress of the open-source platform. John Bruggeman, chief marketing officer at WindRiver, a maker of so-called device software optimization tools and a member of the LiMo Foundation, said that the entire market should benefit from Google's efforts. "There are tons of applications developers who want to write applications to a Linux platform and have them live on multiple devices, and this appears to create that opportunity," Bruggemen said. The greatest barrier to mobile Linux adoption — and the reason why groups such as LiMo were established — was the vast number of different flavors of the OS software that have been incorporated in handheld devices thus far with WindRiver counting more than 1,000 different variants, he said. If LiMo and other industry consortiums, such as Consumer Electronics Linux Forum (CELF), Linux Phone Standards (LiPS) Forum, and OpenMoko, can work in partnership with the Open Handset Alliance (OHA), the expert maintains that benefits for the mobile device and applications development markets could be significant. "This creates a chance for applications developers, especially those in the enterprise, to have a stable, reliable mobile platform based in the technical foundations of Linux with which they re already comfortable," said Bruggeman. "Fragmentation has always been the biggest barrier to adoption; it's a great day for Linux and for all these different efforts to consolidate around a common mobile platform." The executive denied the claim made by Greengart and other analysts that the LiMo consortium had "fallen flat" in its efforts, pointing out that the group is less than a year old. LiMo was important in that it was the first mobile Linux consortium that involved carriers in the standards process, which he cited as one of the most promising traits of Google's OHA effort moving forward. Other Linux software providers echoed Bruggemen's comments, calling the Google announcement one of the keys to making the open-source development language a bigger player on the mobile landscape. One of the biggest criticisms that rival mobile OS providers, such as Microsoft and Symbian, could aim at Linux was the fact that applications developers couldn't afford to deal with the huge variety of flavors of the open-source platform that have found their way into devices. "Phone makers looked at Linux and could see that it was easier and more profitable to go with Windows mobile or Symbian, but now, you can put Linux in the same ballpark in terms of the completeness of the solution," said Jim Ready, CTO at MonteVista, a maker of Linux development platforms. "It's still hard to do this development with the level of high-quality and performance that enterprise businesses expect. This won't make it easy for small developers to get in the game, but it will help," Ready said. "But at least now Linux can stand toe-to-toe with these other platforms in terms of breadth of environment." In the face of all the optimism being espoused by other market watches, at least one analyst said that an oft-cited perception about Linux — it's potentially weak security when compared to other platforms — may still provide a sticking point for enterprises. "Enterprise won't be the primary market for a lot of these efforts, and the security of a Linux-based handheld might be one of the reasons for that," said Maribel Lopez, analyst with Forrester Research. "Microsoft is already getting grief over whether its smartphones are secure enough for the enterprise, and I have to believe that any other OS will face the same questions. Hardcore enterprises will probably be the most skeptical about the initial security considerations."

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