10e20 Blog

Got Verizon? Your cell phone multimedia experience is about to get much better. In a partnership with Verizon, Google has agreed to deliver YouTube content to Verizon-serviced cellular phones (subscription required). It was only two weeks ago when CEO Eric Schmidt stated that “Your mobile phone should be free,” indicating Google’s desire to reach into the world of cellular communications, and well beyond personal computing.

While cell phones and their plans still will cost money (I’d imagine Google is still working out the logistics of a “free mobile world”), Google’s partnership with Verizon enables them to benefit with the exclusive content of YouTube’s home videos, musical performances, pranks, and more — for a limited time. Eventually, it is speculated that YouTube’s media will be rolled out to other wireless carriers.

Meanwhile, all Verizon users need to access the exclusive YouTube content on their cell phones is a compatible cell phone and the “V Cast” media service, which costs $15/month (or $3/day).

Even though there are applications available that allow you to stream YouTube content, this partnership has the potential to reach a broader audience of viewers and can “potentially guarantee its customers higher video quality.”

So for now, everyone involved in the partnership benefits — Verizon customers get new (and exciting) content, Verizon gets a boost in sales with new signups, and Google gets its foot in the door for mobile phone users.