Google: Android search grew 300 percent in first half of 2010

Google executives continued to boast of the search giant's mobile and Android progress to date during the company second-quarter conference call, and promised further movement. However, they declined to provide much in the way of specifics on the company's mobile performance or its plans for the future.

Perhaps the most notable comment came from Patrick Pichette, Google's CFO, who asserted that "Android is not material to the company," when questioned on how much Google is investing in its mobile platform. He said though that Google's return on its Android investment will be "formidable" since mobile users conduct Google searches.

"The most popular app [on Android] is a browser," explained Jonathan Rosenberg, Google's senior vice president of product management--and users conduct searches on that browser. "Android search grew 300 percent in the first half of 2010."

Pichette added that mobile revenue "continues to grow" and that, following Google's acquisition of AdMob, "our business is gaining momentum." He noted that more than 160,000 Android devices are activated daily, and Rosenberg said there are now 70,000 applications in the Android Market.

Interestingly, Rosenberg acknowledged that Google does have more work to do in the mobile arena.

"There's a lot more infrastructure that needs to be built," he said, explaining that Google must invest in expanding its mobile billing functions--presumably a nod toward integrating Android Market purchases into wireless carriers' billing functions.

"We're investing in building that winning platform," Rosenberg concluded, though he repeatedly declined to provide specific mobile revenues or information on how Google's mobile search revenues compare with its desktop search revenues.

During its second quarter, Google reported revenues of $6.82 billion, an increase of 24 percent compared with the second quarter of 2009. The company's net income in the second quarter was $1.84 billion, up from the $1.48 billion it reported in the second quarter of 2009.

Google's stock fell around 4 percent to around $474 per share in after-hours trading in the minutes following its earnings announcement.

For more:
- see this release
- see this conference call transcript
- see this WSJ live blog of Google's earnings call
- see this FierceWireless Q2 earnings page

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