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There are now more than 2.5 bn mobile devices in the world, compared to approximately 820 mn PCs. Nearly a third of the world's 7 bn people have made a mobile phone call. India is adding more than 5 mn new mobile subscribers a month. In Ghana, more than 60% of the population has network coverage, up from 10% in 1999 and is expected to exceed 85% in 2010.

What do these facts suggest? For one thing, they suggest that the promise of mobility-the promise of remaining connected, no matter where you are-is moving closer to fruition every day. But perhaps even more interesting is that they suggest an increasingly deep integration of mobile devices and the mobile web in everyday life, particularly for people for whom mobile devices are "first screen" devices. The worldwide ratio of mobile devices to PCs is 3 to 1, but in regions like Africa and Asia that ratio is skewing more sharply toward mobile devices, suggesting that these devices will begin to play an even more integral role in the lives of people in these regions.

Until now, sellers had to identify buyers themselves, and either travel long distances to central marketplaces or sell to wholesalers at low prices.

Dr Prasad Ram R&D head Google India

But as mobile devices become more and more central to our lives, and as the mobile market's growth continues to skyrocket, the following questions arise: How do we meet the challenges associated with the enormous potential of this market? How do we go about fulfilling the promise of mobility? For Google, a crucial component of any approach to the mobile space is a strong focus on innovation, and in our work, we've extracted three key learnings about promoting innovation in mobile as discussed below.

Open Platforms
Innovation in the mobile space is not limited strictly to the development of new products and services, and new ways of delivering them to users; it also consists of finding ways to integrate existing but disparate services and platforms. If we hope to spur more of this kind of innovation, we need to embrace an open-platform approach that will enable us to overcome some fundamental infrastructure hurdles, such as the signing of downloadable applications, data plans that are prohibitive to the casual user, seamless operation across different SMS backends, sharing contacts across products, and more.

Leverage Partnerships
All the players in the market, regardless of size or standing, help drive both innovation and user adoption of mobile services. Only by working in concert, all the players in the industry-carriers, OEMs, and content providers-will be able to give further life to the marketplace, drive innovation, and ultimately offer users a true mobile experience.

Embrace Iteration
In Google's experience, attempting to perfect the user experience for a product slows down innovation. Instead, developers should focus on launching faster and more frequently. Testing ideas in the market sooner and more often will allow developers to improve the user experience. Google mobile search is a product of this iterative approach.

In the end, it is Google's view that if we can maintain a strong focus on innovation by opening platforms, leveraging partnerships and embracing iteration, then we will ensure that we are doing everything we can to fulfill the promise of mobility, enabling users to access the information anywhere and anytime.