Phil Chambers of Qype on Android

Phil Chambers is currently CTO at Qype.com, having previously been responsible for scaling Gumtree.com’s platform and before that building large-scale systems for Accenture.

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Qype is the largest local review site in Europe and thus Phil a rather direct interest in the arrival of Android, since they have a heck of a lot of traffic on their mobile web site.

The launch of the first phone to use the Android platform is a massive step in the right direction. At Qype, we’re really excited about the possibilities location-aware phones give to the users, and having that technology on a completely open-source platform can only help to bring it to the mass market.

Just like open source platforms drove the growth of the web, open phones will result in a similar explosion in mobile. Put simply, this time next year it won’t be only early adopters finding a decent pub on their phone – it’ll be their Mums finding restaurants and shops too.

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Agreed, Phil… Here’s hoping that Android will really be able to use localised discovery of the likes of Qype’s content properly — and point the way for the rest of the marketplace!