Should we be concerned?
The smartphone market is more heterogeneous than the PC market and, while that that means healthy competition across the board, it also means it's more exposed to a ‘land-grab' by larger players.
In Android, Google has control of what could develop into the dominant mobile phone operating system for the smartphone era, and there's Chrome on the way.
Google is also adding new services by the day, as diverse as navigation, voice search and even basic service provision. We're not suggesting that Google should be punished for its success - it has got where it is by giving end-users what they want - but as it continues to grow and diversify, so does the possibility that its influence could distort markets and harm competition.
So, if Google succeeds in buying AdMob, it will add a dominant presence in the mobile web display and app display markets to its near monopoly of search advertising.
This has the potential to make Google such a dominant force in the commercialisation of the mobile Internet - generally expected to be the key technology trend for the next few years - that the market is no longer competitive. That's why the FTC needs to take a good, long look at this.
