Google to Acquire Motorola Mobility

Wow. Didn't expect to read about this today. Certainly makes for an interesting future...

 

I agree with the 'WOW!' factor. Didn't see this either.

I cannot image how much longer the same Android system will remain completely open to other hardware phone makers though. Motorola is struggling to get smartphone market share and being 'Google' branded was not enough for Google previous HTC Nexus phones.

Will just sit on the sidelines for this one. opcorn:

 

Hmmm. I don't think I like this new set-up. Why change the status quo? The way it works now seems pretty good. Google makes the Android software, and distributes it to the hardware companies (Motorola, HTC, Samsung, etc) who make the phones/devices. Now that Google bought Motorola, Google is now a direct competitor with HTC, Samsung, etc. How can they do Android software buisness with them on one hand, and then compete with them at the same time on the hardware level? It doesn't make sense to me. But apparently it seems to make sense to someone at Google who has a few billions of $ laying around, so I'll just assume they know what they are doing and that all will turn out well.

i just hope they keep the Motorola name/branding, because Moto's bat-wing logo is an American icon, I'd hate so see it tossed on the side of the mega-corporate merger highway

 

I can only imagine that Google felt compelled to act somehow. On the OS-hardware side, there is Apple/Apple, Microsoft/Nokia, and now Google/ Motorola. A lot of money is made in hardware (re Apple), and perhaps inside corporate, Google was not to pleased with the hardware link ups with their OS.

And then there are the patents that I assume Google gets access to via Motorola. They were left out of the Nortel deal, and this may be their counterstrike. Plus Motorola was ripe for an acquisition.

As far as being continued to be open? Well remember the Exxon-Mobil logo name? 'We will never change that'. Well, it is now Exxon.

I imagine Apple is worried...as are Samsung, HTC, LG, etc...

Maybe they can make those batwings form a G

 

Well, I guess now the biggest complaint most people have ever had with Motorola (buggy software) should soon be a thing of the past if Google does this right.

 

Yea, good observation. But if you look closer, these hardware/software combos all very different.

Apple has always made both their own soft- and hardware, and therefore everything non-Apple is a competitor.

Microsoft/Nokia is a marriage, but neither owns the other. Microsoft remains a software vendor only. Nokia, as a hardware mfg, is in direct competition with Samsung, HTC, etc. , but since Microsoft is only software, they are not.

But Google's situation is now complicated, because they are now a software and a hardware vendor, and have to compete in 2 markets. How can they license their Android OS (software) to a competitor (hardware) like HTC now? I think this move is actually bad for Google, because now HTC, Samsung, etc. will be less enthusiastic to take software (ie: Android) from a competitor.

....so the more I think about it, the more I see it as Google shooting themselves int he foot. By buying Motorola, they could be scaring Samsung, HTC, etc away from Android and possibly into the arms of Microsoft's WP7 OS. Which would then in turn be good for Nokia, if suddenly WP7 became a popular phone OS, that would bring consumer interest to Nokia devices. It could then bring Nokia back from the ashes and make Elop look like a genious for placing all his bets on a phone OS with 3% market share.

...my God, I can't keep up with the phone soap-operas anymore. I'm glad I work ont he network side, things are a little more quiet here ...or at least nobody pays as much attention

 

Google could also just slowly phase out Motorola hardware and license any patents owned by Motorola to everyone else.

 

I agree with just about everyone's post including the "wow".

My first reaction was, a device with the Atrix hardware operating on pure Android is the ultimate (read that as "yay, no MotoBlur")and I guess I still see it that way.


There is an obvious advantage for the hardware and software manufacturer to be the same but this is different. I like others do not quite understand how it works with selling software to hardware manufacturers that compete with their own product.

I do hope Google keeps the Moto name and logo and not just take the patents and the innovations and throw the rest away.

This will be quite interesting as more details emerge.


Another link

Noooooooooooo

 

This sounds like the plot to a typical 80's movie:

"The struggling all-American company Motorola has been making radios since the 1930's, but has recently fallen on hard times and is faced with closing their doors for good. When Russian billionaire Sergey Brin steps in and offers them a free magic phone software, it appears the company is saved, until Brin announces a hostile take-over of the company with the intention of stripping it down and selling it for parts. Michael J Fox works in the mail-room at Motorola and has a plan that can save the company, but can he pull it off before Brin's lawyers destroys it?"

...actually, the more I read about this deal, the more it seems it's more about patents than anything else. I guess it must be, because if you remove the patent angle, this deal makes little sense.

 

Although I also think the reason has to do with patents...I do think it likely that the long range plan is more likely reflected in this article. Those 17,000 patents certainly wasn't helping Motorola in any way.

Is Google Turning Into a Mobile Phone Company? No, It Says - NYTimes.com

I think the highly profitable and successful closed design/business model that Apple uses, has taken notice among those interested in $$ or at least competing with Apple for single unit hardware market share.

Excerpts:

"Even after Google acquired Android in 2005, it continued to play down plans to enter the phone business for several more years. It wasn’t until the summer of 2008 that Steven P. Jobs at Apple actually took notice and went to Google’s headquarters to inspect one of its prototype handsets.

Google’s diversionary tactics made sense: by 2006, Mr. Schmidt, now Google’s chairman, was an Apple board member and Google was considered an important partner to Apple. But when Mr. Jobs finally saw Google’s phone he was “furious” and “concluded he was a victim of deceit,” according to Mr. Levy’s account. (Mr. Schmidt has said he never misguided Mr. Jobs.)"

“Google can’t admit in public that what they intend to do is eventually make Android proprietary,” said Tavis McCourt, an analyst at Morgan Keegan Equity Research. Despite Google’s protestations, Mr. McCourt says he believes that in two to three years — after Motorola increases its distribution channels in Europe, where it is weak compared to Samsung and others — Google will seek to start closing Android’s platform or begin building special features on its own phones that are not available to its “partners.”

Indeed, Google’s main P.R. message in its takeover of Motorola Mobility may follow that playbook of Research in Motion, the maker of BlackBerry, when it acquired QNX Software Systems, a software unit of Harmon International, a little more than a year ago. At the time of the deal, RIM said it was buying QNX to enter the automobile and infotainment business, which was a strength of QNX. RIM played down any talk that QNX might be used as RIM’s next-generation operating system. Of course, the messaging was a bit disingenuous: QNX is now building RIM’s operating system.

“They couldn’t say it because RIM’s developers would have stopped developing for BlackBerry’s current operating system,” Mr. McCourt said.

 

By Buying Motorola, Google Can Now Do Whatever The Heck They Want With_Android


With the announcement of their planned $12.5B Motorola Mobility acquisition this morning, Google is buying a lot of stuff. They’re buying 20,000 employees (almost doubling their headcount.) They’re buying an absurdly daunting armory of over 24,000 patents (I mean, come on: Motorola has the patent on the cell phone.) But there’s one more thing that Google’s buying, and it’s one that shifts up the Android game all together: nearly 30% of Android’s existing marketshare in the U.S.

After years of owning next to none of the hardware marketshare for their own software platform (even the so-called “Google phone” Nexus devices are made by HTC and Samsung), Google has just become Android’s 2nd biggest manufacturer.

Some of the things this could mean:

Updates For Everyone! Now under the Google umbrella, the pressure on Motorola to keep their Android handsets updated will be stronger than ever… which in turns ups the pressure for everyone else. If Motorola maintains their share and Google keeps a fire lit under them (as they should), nearly 30% of the devices flying off the shelves will be quickly upgraded to each new software release. Other manufacturers will feel the heat to support upgrades as often and as quickly possible, or risk being known as the manufacturer that doesnt.
The death of the skin? So far, any of the devices that Google has had a direct role in launching run what they call a “pure Google Experience” — that is, it’s Android, straight-up, without any of the custom interface replacements/overhauls that the manufacturers insist on strapping to their own Android devices. HTC has Sense. Sony Ericsson has UXP. Samsung has TouchWiz. Motorola had Motoblur.
Motorola recently announced that they would be tapering off the development of Motoblur, and now we know why. Google doesn’t want their own handset manufacturer changing up Android — that would imply that something is wrong with Android. While Moto might have one or two more devices in the pipeline with BLUR on deck, expect all of their new stuff to run vanilla Android sooner than later.

It’ll be interesting to see how this affects other manufacturer’s skinning efforts. Will they fall back to vanilla Android because that’s what most users will come to expect, or will they strengthen their UI tweaking efforts to differentiate their wares?

Google could tackle Android’s “fragmentation” by bullying for standard hardware specs Though they tend to be overblown, Android does have fragmentation issues. Among the most annoying, from a development/testing perspective, is the hugely varied selection of screen resolutions used by different manufacturers. How easy would it be for Googorola to say “So, hey guys, we’re only going to use 800×480 displays on our own devices for the next year or so. You don’t have to, but, you know, you probably should.”?

Google just instantly shot from zero to 60 (well, zero to 30% — but you get what I mean) in a race they long pretended to have no interest in. They stood aside and let the major manufacturers raise Android to the top — and now that it’s there, they’re swooping in and taking a commanding control of the hardware side of things. Is it evil? Perhaps a bit. But it’s also downright genius. Marketshare maintained, Google will have final say over what happens to thirty percent of the hardware sitting in pockets, and be able to sway the other manufacturers accordingly.

Expect Android to do nothing but improve, and fast.

 

I agree with Charlyee. Google/Motorola integration will be good for the Android platform in the same way the iOS has benefited from Apple's tight integration of software and hardware. I can see the Motorola name disappearing soon from the mobile industry. They already have Google Voice (their own phone company), they also have their own mobile OS, and now they are getting their own phone hardware. I can see this as being part of a bigger plan.

 

Who would buy a Google branded phone? It sounds downright ridiculous. I predict the Motorola brand will stay. In spite of sometimes buggy software, Motorola has a great reputation for radio reception. To this day no other cell phone brand has consistently put out phones that work as well in weak signal areas--occasionally, yes, but Motorola does it much more consistently.

 

If I was an Android licensee I would be looking hard at my OS options right now. Never know when Google might decide that a closed eco-system is better after all. I would not change overnight but I might be more inclined to have a crew or two working with others, just in case.

 

I think Google will take over Motorola, as Google is best and in future it is having a good future like other phone co.

 

Same thing happened 5 years ago: The announcement of Apple (a computer company) going into the mobile phone business. We've seen the success of that "ridiculousness".

After Google acquires Motorola's mobile unit, the only thing they can do is license the Motorola name if they want to hang on to it. But eventually, they will have to get rid of that as they build brand equity on their own name. We've seen Google toying around with the idea of making their own phones in the past. Remember the Nexus One? It was originally advertised as a Google phone, not Android, not HTC.