Google/Verizon Deal: More Details Emerge

Following up on the previous post, here are a few notable tidbits from the conference call that followed the Google/Verizon announcement.

— The Android market will be pre-loaded on a number of Verizon devices.

— These devices will be announced shortly — starting with two and growing to a large but undisclosed number of eventual handsets.

— Smartphones make up 40 percent of devices sold by Verizon, up from 10 percent a few years ago.

— This partnership covers both handsets and netbooks.

— There will be a revenue split, though undisclosed, for ads served by Google on various apps and search products running on Verizon’s network.

— Verizon will support Google Voice.

The smartphone sales figure (40 percent) is interesting. If this is representative of sales by other carriers, we can imagine the difference between new sales and current ownership (~15 percenr in the U.S.) to be reconciled with higher overall smartphone penetration over time.

To put it another way, smartphone penetration could approach this 40 percent during the hardware replacement cycles of the next 12 to 24 months (though the industry average for smartphone sales is likely less than 40 percent). This is interesting generally, and also supportive of Verizon’s move today.

The last point about Google Voice is also notable in light of the family feud currently unraveling between Google and AT&T.