I think this shows that Google is serious about addressing the recent escalation in the patent wars. Acquiring Motorola Mobility won't be the final move by anyone, but it sure clears up the picture. I expect that Google, Apple, and Microsoft (maybe Oracle too) will end up more in a mutual (legal hell) destruction detent. Everyone will have to go back to the core business of creating the best products and letting the consumers make their choices. I think this is good, particularly for Apple. My spider sense warns me that Apple is moving to bean counter mode at the helm, and, if I'm right, I think they need to move back to letting the product people drive the ship.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Google 'Supercharging Android' With Acquisition of Motorola Mobility
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Nokia hasn't been acquired by MS.
Nokia hasn't been acquired by MS.
HTC and Samsung already licence WP7.
You don't win or lose patent lawsuits based on what patents your opposition hold. It just sometimes will force you to settle in a way that is mutually beneficial.
This only benefits Google if they can accumulate enough valuable patents to equal that to which they themselves are guilty of violating. I'm betting they are nowhere close to that yet.
4 hardware makers stand in the end
With this move Google is now a hardware maker. Even though Android has captured almost 50% of the smartphone market, Google is not really reaping th e rewards. They tried to push Web M as the next video codec and Flash as the container. And yet mp4 and HTML 5 are gaining more and more popularity. And even thought the user installed base base is almost the same as IOS, the IOS app market has almost 80% of the sales and profits. For the platform to survive it needs a healthy market to attract more and better developers.
This move is to ensure that Google has leverage to lead their platform directly. The inevitable results of this is that the Motorola Brand will be the only (or the main) supplier of Android handsets. most of the other handset makers will most likely shrink in size or go to another platform.
In the end, Google (Motorola) along with Apple. Microsoft (Nokia) and either HP or RIM will be the survivors of the smartphone wars.
With this move Google is now a hardware maker. Even though Android has captured almost 50% of the smartphone market, Google is not really reaping th e rewards. They tried to push Web M as the next video codec and Flash as the container. And yet mp4 and HTML 5 are gaining more and more popularity. And even thought the user installed base base is almost the same as IOS, the IOS app market has almost 80% of the sales and profits. For the platform to survive it needs a healthy market to attract more and better developers.
This move is to ensure that Google has leverage to lead their platform directly. The inevitable results of this is that the Motorola Brand will be the only (or the main) supplier of Android handsets. most of the other handset makers will most likely shrink in size or go to another platform.
In the end, Google (Motorola) along with Apple. Microsoft (Nokia) and either HP or RIM will be the survivors of the smartphone wars.
Last edited:
Why should we believe Andy Rubin, the same person who was saying Android was open source even after no source for Honeycomb was published. He's very sneaky with words.
I'd be very surprised if Motorola doesn't win this years "bid", despite what he says about no exclusives. I mean think about it Google will pay $12.5 billion for Motorola, of course they want it to be a successful investment.
Sure, if you receive a Google paycheck you would call it that. To the rest of the world it's called spin doctoring.
I still have my old Razor phone.
I never use it but I know that its still a good sturdy phone.
I wonder if any of the communication patents from that headset are still relevant ?
BTW ...MacRumors is running VERY slow. Must be a crazy amount of traffic right now.
I never use it but I know that its still a good sturdy phone.
I wonder if any of the communication patents from that headset are still relevant ?
BTW ...MacRumors is running VERY slow. Must be a crazy amount of traffic right now.
Looks like we have a couple of readers who forgot to turn their PR Speak filters on.
Yeah, Google's PR guy.
Looks like we have a couple of readers who forgot to turn their PR Speak filters on.
Yeah, Google's PR guy.
People are so smart/critical when it comes to Google/etc's press releases but take Apple's press releases as gospel? Ok.
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_5 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8L1 Safari/6533.18.5)
does anyone else think that this will even up the playing field and that cooler heads will forge agreements between the major manufacturers so that all can just concentrate on making the best products they can. truth be told, most consumers don't give a rats arse, they just want the "coolest" phone they can afford-MR "fanboys" just like to stir up the pot and hope their predictions become "truths"...
does anyone else think that this will even up the playing field and that cooler heads will forge agreements between the major manufacturers so that all can just concentrate on making the best products they can. truth be told, most consumers don't give a rats arse, they just want the "coolest" phone they can afford-MR "fanboys" just like to stir up the pot and hope their predictions become "truths"...
Hope fully Google will now force Moto to use Vanilla Android, and get rid of all these variations.
Not "desperation" but a smart biz move. Moto bet big on android by releasing cell phones and tablets solely based on their OS now google is doing the same with moto. Google also gains many patents. I think this will be a good union.
OH MY GAWD.
Well, if there was ever a question as to who's product design process was the best, that's put to rest. Apple's integrated approach has now been chosen by the Microsoft / Nokia deal, and now by Google and Motorola Mobile.
Google knows it has to compete on quality for at least their own flagship products. And their software ecosystem will surely remain "open." But I have to wonder how this will effect the long-term prognosis of third-party Android handsets. To me, it sounds as if the other hardware manufacturers were just told that they will be competing for dinner scraps-- the low cost or reduced feature set versions.
Well, if there was ever a question as to who's product design process was the best, that's put to rest. Apple's integrated approach has now been chosen by the Microsoft / Nokia deal, and now by Google and Motorola Mobile.
Google knows it has to compete on quality for at least their own flagship products. And their software ecosystem will surely remain "open." But I have to wonder how this will effect the long-term prognosis of third-party Android handsets. To me, it sounds as if the other hardware manufacturers were just told that they will be competing for dinner scraps-- the low cost or reduced feature set versions.
Google: "Help, I'm drowning! Someone throw me an anchor!"
I haven't seen a single decent Motorola phone in a very long time. Google would have to push to make better phones.
And hopefully, it may create some competitiveness against Apple, which would be interesting to see, just that Apple is way up ahead with innovation.
I want to see the legendary iPhone Killer!!!
I haven't seen a single decent Motorola phone in a very long time. Google would have to push to make better phones.
And hopefully, it may create some competitiveness against Apple, which would be interesting to see, just that Apple is way up ahead with innovation.
I want to see the legendary iPhone Killer!!!
I completely agree with you. If Samsung and HTC traded on the NYSE, I'd love to see the effects of today lol Alas, they do not.
What a fun Monday
How much money does Google actually make out of Android?
Answer: Pretty much nothing. As in zero dollars, or more likely a loss. Its hard to make much when you give something away for free.
So its hard for me to understand your assertion RE Apple, which is piling up profits by the billion from its iOS operating system.
Google's acquisition of Motorola Mobility only makes sense from a "patent warchest" perspective. ie. The best defense in a tech. patent case is a big portfolio of your own patents, which most likely are being infringed by the people suing you.
Google found itself the odd man out in the weird game of musical chairs that developed over the Nortel patents. By declining to join the Microsoft/Apple partnership it found itself in a position where it simply didn't have a mobile phone patent portfolio to speak of. Not a good place to be if your are supposedly the leading mobile phone OS developer. So the $4 billion that Apple/Microsoft paid for Nortel's patents was too much - but the $12 billion Google paid for Motorola is a good deal? I wonder how many Google shareholders will see it that way - especially if Google is unable to turn this acquisition into a profit-maker.
Google's relationship with its Android partners (a contradiction in terms if ever there was one) is likely to get complicated. As Horace Dediu so succinctly put it:
Emphasis Mine.
Now Google will have a direct interest in the android platform.
Before their revenue wasn't impacted by which phone sold the best, only that people used more internet search where they could place ads (even WP7 or iPhone sales helped Google).
Now they are going to have to manage design, production, marketing and sale of devices which, when done badly (Google TV anyone ^^), could become a money pit.
There is also the problem of many companies that already felt like the third wheel with android 3.x system only available to carefully selected partners, now that Google will have direct stakes in a producer all the others are going to feel trapped.
The Android platform is probably going to become more standardised though, since concurrent companies will probably copy screen ratio and resolution, CPU / GPU, etc. in order not to fall in a sub-par Android, we'll see how Google will handle the copy game then.
Still people may eat up statistics about devices sold but the fact remains that Android fragmentation and unsustainable apps still deters a lot of BIG devs and companies (the guys that don't sell fart apps), and that is the one big advantage of Apple, today when you pick up a iPad 2 you can go home and do things with it, when you invest money in development you can at least make a few assumption on returns.
Android tablet or other devices, not there yet.
Before their revenue wasn't impacted by which phone sold the best, only that people used more internet search where they could place ads (even WP7 or iPhone sales helped Google).
Now they are going to have to manage design, production, marketing and sale of devices which, when done badly (Google TV anyone ^^), could become a money pit.
There is also the problem of many companies that already felt like the third wheel with android 3.x system only available to carefully selected partners, now that Google will have direct stakes in a producer all the others are going to feel trapped.
The Android platform is probably going to become more standardised though, since concurrent companies will probably copy screen ratio and resolution, CPU / GPU, etc. in order not to fall in a sub-par Android, we'll see how Google will handle the copy game then.
Still people may eat up statistics about devices sold but the fact remains that Android fragmentation and unsustainable apps still deters a lot of BIG devs and companies (the guys that don't sell fart apps), and that is the one big advantage of Apple, today when you pick up a iPad 2 you can go home and do things with it, when you invest money in development you can at least make a few assumption on returns.
Android tablet or other devices, not there yet.
Last edited:
Will it even be worth it for them to bother?
You can't do both successfully. One end is going to suffer at the expense of the other.
This "playing both sides of the fence" deal is a pipe dream.
So now it's either/or? Fair enough.
Real question is, why do profits matter to you as a consumer?(Unless you own stock)
Is that the only measure of sucess? Theyre are some VERY sucessful companies out their who dont make apple profits.
Not only that, but if Google is committing to make their Motorola devices provide the "best" Android experience, where does that leave the other device manufacturers? Are they now so much chopped liver? I can see this hurting Android (and Google) eventually, if Samsung, HTC et al feel Google isn't giving them equal access to Android technology. Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if all hardware manufacturers eventually follow Apple's lead and try to develop their own software. Talk about market fragmentation!
this is what i'm thinking, too.... they now have a manufacturer to push out stock android with. it'll take some time to happen, but i'm guessing 3 or 4 "motorola" phones per year, all linked to the nexus brand, all running stock android.
********.
If it was "all about the patents" Google could have bought the patent portfolio and licensed it back to Moto.