After all that problems Google has had in China recently, with the reported hacking attempt on the gmail account for human right activists. After this hacking occurrence, Google has decided to postpone the launch of their panned Nexus One cellphone in China.
The market in China is the most popular mobile Internet marketing in the world, the # of subscribers is over 700 million subscribers, approx. twice the size of the # of landline subscriptions.
Google acknowledged that they might be forced to shutter Google.cn and their search services in the country. The government maintains that Google must obey the censorship laws. However, there was still a possibility that they might be allowed to maintain other services, such as Google Voice, Gmail or Maps.
Although lagging behind Baidu in search, Google has fared well on the mobile Internet in China, and the phone could have been a way for them to extend their mobile (and possibly total) marketshare. Perhaps it’s not worth it to them if the phone isn’t going to be supporting their larger cash cow, search.
This type of threat, is also a sign that in the future the Chinese government will stop allowing any of Google’s services in China.
I personally don’t think Google will be allowed to run other services if they close their search business. Will China get the Nexus? or will China save face and ignore Google?
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