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When Google launched its Nexus One Android phone, it also launched alongside it an online phone store where the Nexus One and future Android phones would be for sale. It was a slightly disruptive play to de-link the purchase of a phone from an actual carrier. The idea was, you could pick your phone, pick your plan, and mix and match.

Well, it didn’t turn out that way. Carriers don’t like to give up control. In fact, Verizon decided not to sell the Nexus One at all, and instead opt for its own more Incredible Android phone. The phone store turned out to be a flop, and Google just announced that it will be closing up shop online:

While the global adoption of the Android platform has exceeded our expectations, the web store has not. It’s remained a niche channel for early adopters, but it’s clear that many customers like a hands-on experience before buying a phone, and they also want a wide range of service plans to chose from.

The Nexus One phone will still be available through carrier partners. But Google’s online phone store will become an “online store window” showcasing Android phones available globally—directly from the carriers. Google has enough on its hands going up against Apple. It needs the carriers on its side if it wants to win the bigger battle.

Yesterday, Admob served its 200 billionth mobile ad, only nine months after serving its 100 billionth ad. The mobile ad network is still growing strong, with 160 employees and an annualized revenue run-rate above $100 million.

But ever since Google outbid Apple with its $750 million bid to buy AdMob, the original growth engine for AdMob—iPhone app ads—has been stalling. As you can see by the chart above showing share of worldwide ad impressions across the AdMob network by operating systems, the iPhone peaked as the biggest smartphone source of AdMob ads in November, 2009, right before the Google deal was announced. Since then, it’s been a slow but steady decline from 54 percent to 46 percent in March, 2010. Fortunately for AdMob, Android is picking up the slack, rising from 16 percent of ads served to 25 percent, during the same period. In the U.S., Android is already contributing more ad impressions than the iPhone for AdMob.

Of course, ever since Apple was spurned by AdMob, it’s made it more difficult for AdMob to compete on the iPhone. Apple went on to acquire AdMob rival Quattro Wireless, and plans to introduce its own iAds, which will tie into iTunes in unique ways. Apple may further hobble AdMob by blocking its ability to collect data from the apps which serve its ads.

So you can expect that iPhone percentage to keep on dropping (even if the absolute number of impressions keeps rising, also note that the iPhone figures above do not include the iPod Touch). The question is, can Android keep growing fast enough to make up for it?

TiVo is having a very rough morning.

A federal appeals court stated today that it will revisit a digital-video recorder patent dispute between TiVo and both Dish Network and EchoStar. TiVo has sued the companies back in 2004 over its patented DVR technology back when the two were still a single company.

They won the suit, but the court has now decided to reconsider its verdict, which is a bit of a cold shower for the company.

Today’s decision pushed TiVo shares down as much as 36 38 percent.

The company moments ago released a statement on the matter:

“We are disappointed that we do not yet have finality in this case despite years of litigation but we remain confident that the Federal Circuit’s ruling in our favor will be reaffirmed after all of the judges on the Federal Circuit have had the opportunity to review the merits of this case.”

Update: and here’s the Dish / EchoStar statement:

“DISH Network and EchoStar are pleased that the full Federal Circuit Court of Appeals has granted their petition for rehearing en banc. We believe the issues that will be considered by the full court on rehearing will have a profound impact on innovation in the United States for years to come.”

In March 2010, a panel of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a trial judge’s decision to hold Dish and EchoStar in contempt for infringing on TiVo’s DVR patent. The companies then urged the court to reconsider, and the appeals court has granted said request earlier this morning. The court said it will take a second look at its March finding.

More details on BusinessWeek.

The market is busy beating TiVo with a stick – let’s see how long that continues.

Google is adopting an Apple strategy today. The search giant is giving students priority to its invite-only phone service, Google Voice. Clearly, Google is trying to go after impressionable minds to gain early adopters of their technologies, which is something that Apple has been doing with its products for some time. The company implemented a similar strategy with Google Apps and Google Wave. The college student market is key because that’s where many people get trained, start relying on, and form brand allegiances to apps and technologies.

Google naturally believes the features of Voice, including the integration of Voice with email, free text messages and the ability to read voicemail in a transcript form are ideal for students and their lifestyle. Of course, this claim isn’t off base but I think those features are useful for anyone, which is why we find the service compelling overall.

Now when a student signs up for Google Voice with an .edu email address, he or she will be given priority over other applicants for the service. There’s even a special page for students to sign up for Voice. Apparently any student who applies will automatically receive an invite within 24 hours. Maybe I should have kept that old college account active after all.