Calendar for mobile devices
Posted by Devesh Parekh, Software Engineer, Google Calendar team — We realize that more people in the world have mobile phones than have computers, and people take their cell phones with them everywhere. Since one of our main goals on the Calendar team …
Context & Ripple Effects
Google Calendar had been gaining U.S. visit share, overtaking MSN Calendar and nearing Yahoo! Calendar, while 30Boxes was already extending its calendar service to mobile and Mac users. Extending Google’s service beyond the desktop makes device access part of the contest for calendar usage rather than a secondary feature.
First-order effects
- Google Calendar users can access their schedules from mobile devices, making the service available in the setting where a desktop browser is least useful.
Second-order effects
- Yahoo! Calendar, MSN Calendar and mobile-enabled rivals such as 30Boxes face pressure to match mobile access if they want to compete for habitual, on-the-go calendar use.
Third-order effects
- Calendar services are beginning to compete as cross-device utilities: the provider that keeps a user’s schedule accessible across screens has a stronger claim on the underlying relationship.
The trend: Personal web services are moving from desktop destinations toward services designed to be available wherever users carry a connected device.