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Rodimus Prime

macrumors G4
Oct 9, 2006
10,136
4
They should be investigating Microsoft for it's anticompetitive move before and during the auction since some of the patents that they were already paying for would have continued on regardless of who owned them and not been cancelled. What Microsoft wanted was to keep Google from touching the patents at all and I believe that Google let Microsoft play right into their plan since now it looks like it is anticompetitive.

already happen. It only been in the past few years MS has come out of Government over sit.
 

Pair

macrumors member
Jan 31, 2011
68
56
Maybe they should have saved up some cash instead of buying Youtube for billions.

It's their own stupidity for the spot they are in and their Android system blows anyway. It's fragmented and bloated and has no eco-system or direction.


Firstly, what a stupid statement. Quick research shows that google just under $37 billion in cash.
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=GOOG http://thenextweb.com/google/2011/04/14/google-surpasses-expectations-in-q1-financials/

I would imagine Google bid what (hopefully) it was worth to them in terms of facing legal action otherwise.
Secondly, it's not an absolute measure of success - but based on growth/activation numbers gives us a basis that your statement that it "blows anyway" is quite wrong. 400,000 - 500,000 daily. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/8603816/500000-Android-activations-per-day.html

I am in no way a fan of Android, I just hate it when stupid statements are made.
 

bryanck

macrumors member
Jan 18, 2008
58
26
Antitrust investigation? How absurd. Android has the largest market share in the U.S. for smartphones, and they are investigating the little guys for antitrust? If that isn't bizarre, I don't know what it. The feds need something more important to do methinks.
 

iDisk

macrumors 6502a
Jan 2, 2010
825
0
Menlo Park, CA
What exactly did Google do to Apple?

Google's eric schimdt, poached ideas and plans from APPLE AS HE SERVED ON THEIR BOARD. He not only betrayed Apple, but Steve too. He and Googles, "don't be evil" mantra, is bull.... Google wants to destroy the iPhone, but Apple won't let them... Did Apple enter into the "search" business? Nope.. But Google decided to betray a friend and tech partner and enter the phone business.

They betrayed Apple, on many levels, and You don't do that to Steve Jobs.

They being Google "violated the alliance"
 
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rman726

macrumors 6502
Oct 15, 2007
415
0
Firstly, what a stupid statement. Quick research shows that google just under $37 billion in cash.
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=GOOG http://thenextweb.com/google/2011/04/14/google-surpasses-expectations-in-q1-financials/

I would imagine Google bid what (hopefully) it was worth to them in terms of facing legal action otherwise.
Secondly, it's not an absolute measure of success - but based on growth/activation numbers gives us a basis that your statement that it "blows anyway" is quite wrong. 400,000 - 500,000 daily. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/8603816/500000-Android-activations-per-day.html

I am in no way a fan of Android, I just hate it when stupid statements are made.

Many consider Windows OS to blow for quite some time (Including a large number of Windows users themselves). But it's still by far the most popular operating system. Why? Because it's most affordable and convenient for most of the consumers.

So, while Android may be getting increasingly popular among consumers, that doesn't mean it can't suck. I'm not taking sides into whether Android sucks or not, but just saying that the number of activations doesn't mean it doesn't suck.
 

mentholiptus

macrumors regular
Sep 1, 2009
163
0
Bidding pi and the distance to the sun is also pretty stupid.

Agreed. It almost seems as if they didn't take it seriously in the first place.

So, why apple? What's the difference if anyone else won it? What if google won it? Someone would have won it one way or another, does that automatically make the winner anti-competitive?

This entire market, in it's current form, was birthed by Apple's iPhone. Now, if apple has an advantage, they're anti-competitive? Lame. Everyone had a chance to bid. Google could have won it. They didn't, by choice, and because they were playing games. Tough shizzle.
 

iDisk

macrumors 6502a
Jan 2, 2010
825
0
Menlo Park, CA
Let it begin!

Google vs Apple
 

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NinjaHERO

macrumors 6502a
Aug 29, 2008
972
1,253
U S of A
Google's eric schimdt, poached ideas and plans from APPLE AS HE SERVED ON THEIR BOARD. He not only betrayed Apple, but Steve too. He and Googles, "don't be evil" mantra, is bull.... Google wants to destroy the iPhone, but Apple won't let them... Did Apple enter into the "search" business? Nope.. But Google decided to betray a friend and tech partner and enter the phone business.

They betrayed Apple, on many levels, and You don't do that to Steve Jobs.

They being Google "violated the alliance"

That sounds more emotional than factual. But hey, you have your opinion and you stick to it. Well done.

Like the picture too.
 

hotrock3

macrumors member
Mar 29, 2009
53
0
Looks like some more federal employees need something to do that justifies their paycheck.

Typical federal employee, "look like your doing something while doing nothing at all, if it makes the news as something productive even better"
 

trunten

macrumors regular
Feb 17, 2007
193
39
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-gb) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

Can somebody explain to me why what appears to be a patent that is essentially a hardware issue (lte) matters to google who only make software?
 

mentholiptus

macrumors regular
Sep 1, 2009
163
0
...and Android is still a huge success.

It's a success because it's ubiquitous. People want an affordable smartphone, and it probably runs android. it's free to vendors (for now) because google makes money of all the advertising it pushes on it's unsuspecting end users. Not because it's the best. It's the new windows running on an emachine.
 

jicon

macrumors 6502a
Nov 29, 2004
801
619
Toronto, ON
Sorry it's just a personal opinion, but its kinda common to say "you didn't really want the patents" when you loose the bid...

I just hate what Google did to Apple, so i'm biased. (if thats not obvious :) ), but at least I'm honest about it

I would have given you some credit, but you have used the wrong word twice in two posts.

loose/lo͞os/
Adjective: Not firmly or tightly fixed in place; detached or able to be detached: "a loose tooth".
Verb: Set free; release: "the hounds have been loosed"

lose/lo͞oz/Verb
1. Be deprived of or cease to have or retain (something): "I've lost my appetite".
2. Cause (someone) to fail to gain or retain (something): "you lost me my appointment at the university".


I don't believe the patents should have gone to auction. If Nortel is bankrupt, maybe the patents could have gone to the public domain.
 

*LTD*

macrumors G4
Feb 5, 2009
10,703
1
Canada
It's a success because it's ubiquitous. People want an affordable smartphone, and it probably runs android. it's free to vendors (for now) because google makes money of all the advertising it pushes on it's unsuspecting end users. Not because it's the best. It's the new windows running on an emachine.

This should be a sticky.

I don't believe the patents should have gone to auction. If Nortel is bankrupt, maybe the patents could have gone to the public domain.

Why? They were a corporate entity's patents to begin with. Now they have been transferred to other corporate entities. Nothing's changed.

They're private property that was sold.
 

iDisk

macrumors 6502a
Jan 2, 2010
825
0
Menlo Park, CA
I would have given you some credit, but you have used the wrong word twice in two posts.

loose/lo͞os/
Adjective: Not firmly or tightly fixed in place; detached or able to be detached: "a loose tooth".
Verb: Set free; release: "the hounds have been loosed"

lose/lo͞oz/Verb
1. Be deprived of or cease to have or retain (something): "I've lost my appetite".
2. Cause (someone) to fail to gain or retain (something): "you lost me my appointment at the university".


I don't believe the patents should have gone to auction. If Nortel is bankrupt, maybe the patents could have gone to the public domain.

Long day, thanks for the correction though ;)
 

bsolar

macrumors 68000
Jun 20, 2011
1,535
1,751
Google's eric schimdt, poached ideas and plans from APPLE AS HE SERVED ON THEIR BOARD. He not only betrayed Apple, but Steve too. He and Googles, "don't be evil" mantra, is bull.... Google wants to destroy the iPhone, but Apple won't let them... Did Apple enter into the "search" business? Nope.. But Google decided to betray a friend and tech partner and enter the phone business.
He did work for Apple, but this doesn't mean Apple did buy his soul forever. If he really did steal plans from Apple, why didn't Apple sue him? Also as far as I understand it was his decision to resign exactly to avoid a potential conflict of interests.

Google wants to earn money competing against Apple in the mobile phone market. This is actually a good thing, and I would like to see Apple entering in the search business, if they come with an interesting product. More competition, the better, it's what makes a free market successful. You seem to think that companies should not enter other companies' businesses which makes sense only if they abuse their strong position unfairly, which is not the case here.
 

dagger01

Cancelled
Jan 14, 2004
121
5
Whoa!

Ganging up with other companies to exclude another party is anti-competitive. Doesn't matter how we feel about it, if they truly are engaged in illicit activities.

What??? If Google was threatened don't you think they would/should have taken the bidding a little more seriously and not bid numbers like Pi and Avogadro's number (http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/02/us-dealtalk-nortel-google-idUSTRE76104L20110702)? Seems like they weren't really interested in the patents, just driving the number ever higher. That's just as dirty as being anti-competitive when we are talking about billions of dollars at stake.

They weren't excluded from anything. They had as much an opportunity (and cash on hand) to competitively bid for those patents, so...
 

mazz0

macrumors 68040
Mar 23, 2011
3,145
3,590
Leeds, UK
I can see why it could be anticompetative - if the group which formed represents too much off the power in the market then that's unfair on those on in the group.

@people saying Google were being stupid or not taking it seriously because of their ammusing bid numbers - err, how does bidding a non-rounded amount make it a bad/silly bid? Sounds like you have a not-seeing-the-substance-for-the-style attitude to me, which is unusual for an Apple fan.
 

dagger01

Cancelled
Jan 14, 2004
121
5
This is what happens when you're a big company and you don't pour money on politicians. They send regulators after you.

No, this happens all the time in business. You just don't hear about it anywhere but on Bloomberg and CNBC, because not a lot of people care. This is mainstream news because of who and how much money is involved. Has nothing to do with greasing politicians.
 

dethmaShine

macrumors 68000
Apr 13, 2010
1,697
0
Into the lungs of Hell
Lol at people getting emotionally involved with a platform. "i hope they lose!" So childish...

Oh Really??

What does Google think of themselves? I'll tell ya:

This outcome is disappointing for anyone who believes that open innovation benefits users and promotes creativity and competition.

So Google would have some what made an open patent pool for all these 6000 patents? And would have invited Microsoft and Apple to share it?

Google is way butt hurt for obvious reasons. They are like the untrustworthy kid who is left out alone for being rude and selfish. I don't know the extent of which google's going to suffer from this but this is just a valid business deal. What if Google would have won? Then it would have been all right because its Google and they support innovation. My ass.

I don't want Android to go. But Google MUST lose this case. They just lost and they should accept their defeat.
 

gnasher729

Suspended
Nov 25, 2005
17,980
5,565
Ganging up with other companies to exclude another party is anti-competitive. Doesn't matter how we feel about it, if they truly are engaged in illicit activities.

Hu? There was an auction. One company bid four billion dollars. A consortium bid four and a half billion dollars. That is competition. Google could have bid five billion and won the auction. So what is anti-competitive here?

And after having paid four and a half billion dollars for the patents, this group will make sure to make Google pay through the nose for any patents they need. Well, that is obvious, they wouldn't have paid four and a half billion for nothing. And since Google still has its four billion in the bank, they can afford to pay a few hundred million for patent licenses.


don't believe the patents should have gone to auction. If Nortel is bankrupt, maybe the patents could have gone to the public domain.

A bankrupt company usually owes money to lots of people. Now there is a pot of 4.5 billion dollars to pay back the money owed. How would you justify not selling everything to get money for the people who are owed it?


They bid pi and the distance to the sun... I think it's safe to say that they didn't want the patents that bad.

If Google bid pi dollars (that is $3.14) or the distance between earth and sun in kilometers (about $150,000,000) then they didn't want the patents too bad. But they bid pi billion dollars, that was quite serious. Pi billion dollars is just a number between 3.1 and 3.2 billion, so what's wrong with that?
 
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iDisk

macrumors 6502a
Jan 2, 2010
825
0
Menlo Park, CA
He did work for Apple, but this doesn't mean Apple did buy his soul forever. If he really did steal plans from Apple, why didn't Apple sue him? Also as far as I understand it was his decision to resign exactly to avoid a potential conflict of interests.

Google wants to earn money competing against Apple in the mobile phone market. This is actually a good thing, and I would like to see Apple entering in the search business, if they come with an interesting product. More competition, the better, it's what makes a free market successful. You seem to think that companies should not enter other companies' businesses which makes sense only if they abuse their strong position unfairly, which is not the case here.

  • He did work for Apple.
  • He "willingly" resigned.
  • He took the information he found out while working at Apple, and used it to release a touch base equivalent Android device.
  • He basically, stole.
  • Google has no original thinking, and no culture.

I don't mind competition, but there copying and competing, much like how Microsoft did with Apple's OS.

When Google can innovate, and compete, then we can talk. Again, this and their useless influence to ask for an investigation over these patents, proves to me, that google can't innovate. Notice how Microsoft, is struggling hard to have a functional mobile OS.. why? because they can't copy Apple's success, they need to become innovative (which isn't in the company DNA), so they will continue to struggle. But at least Microsoft isn't jumping the copying ship on this front, much like Google has done.

Again loyalty is big to Apple, don't bite the Apple that feeds you. Google will learn the hard way about this.

Apple is a company of artist, where raw sand comes in one end, and comes out the other, as silicon art.
 
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dethmaShine

macrumors 68000
Apr 13, 2010
1,697
0
Into the lungs of Hell
Hu? There was an auction. One company bid four billion dollars. A consortium bid four and a half billion dollars. That is competition. Google could have bid five billion and won the auction. So what is anti-competitive here?

And after having paid four and a half billion dollars for the patents, this group will make sure to make Google pay through the nose for any patents they need. Well, that is obvious, they wouldn't have paid four and a half billion for nothing. And since Google still has its four billion in the bank, they can afford to pay a few hundred million for patent licenses.




A bankrupt company usually owes money to lots of people. Now there is a pot of 4.5 billion dollars to pay back the money owed. How would you justify not selling everything to get money for the people who are owed it?

The anti-competitive part is that Google supports open and every other company is closed.

:rolleyes:

So what we understand from this Antitrust investigation is that:

1. If Google had one - it'd been all right.
2. If any body else'd won - it'd been wrong. [which is the case]

So I guess, Google should have been the winner. No wait. Google should have been the only one bidding for this - cause no body else can win.

:rolleyes:
 
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