Much as he dismissed the significance of the iPhone when it first released, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer also dismissed Google’s free-to-use Android.platform when it launched because Google wasn’t charging any money for OEMs to use it. In the five years since launching Android, however, it’s clear that making money from the direct sales of Android devices was never part of Google’s plan. To understand why this is, take a look at.eMarketer’s new report on mobile advertising showing that Google took home $4.61 billion in mobile advertising revenues in 2012, or more than half of all mobile advertising revenues in the world. To get a sense of how dominating this is, consider that no other company made even $1 billion in

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