Revenue and Profit Rise at Google, but Mobile Is a Persistent Challenge

There is no denying that Google has become a mobile company. Now, Google -- along with shareholders, industry partners and advertisers -- is trying to figure out what that means.

In mobile advertising, Google is wrestling with how to make as much money on phones as it has on the ads that appear on desktop computers. Its fourth-quarter earnings report showed that it is continuing to struggle with lower ad prices on phones. Yet some of the new types of ads it has introduced have paid off handsomely, as have mobile businesses like the Play store for Android devices. But in other areas, like manufacturing smartphones, Google has decided that the business is better left to someone else. Motorola’s $384 million loss in the fourth quarter contributed to Google’s failure to meet analysts’ earnings expectations for the quarter.