Google buys 'Android partner' Motorola Mobility for $12.5B

Mr_Roboto · **Posted:** Mon Aug 15, 2011 6:33 am

Hanners has posted a news article.

How does Google's Android OS compete with Apple's ecosystem of iOS products? How about by buying the handset division of one of its Android partners?

Read the full story here.

Mendel · **Posted:** Mon Aug 15, 2011 8:25 am

Finally, seems like the Nokia stock is recovering because of this... at least a little bit.

This may make Android a more closed environment and thus boost up Windows Phone platform.

Hanners · **Posted:** Mon Aug 15, 2011 8:36 am

From what I've read online after posting the story, this seems to be an attempt to counter Apple's strategy of preventing Android devices from being sold with claims of patent infringement.

I can only imagine that Google will rather enjoy counter-suing Apple (or threatening to do so) for all of the mobile communications patents held by Motorola they're breaching. A kind of patent equivalent of "nice phone you have there... would be a shame if it couldn't make or receive calls any more".

seraph · **Posted:** Mon Aug 15, 2011 1:12 pm

Mendel wrote:

Finally, seems like the Nokia stock is recovering because of this... at least a little bit.

This may make Android a more closed environment and thus boost up Windows Phone platform.

As much of a boner as I got after reading the headline and thinking that we'd finally see a gPhone (what iPhone is to Apple, but from Google), sadly this will never, ever happen. There's a great reason too: that would completely turn their business model upside down. They're open and ubiquitous for a reason. Making bomb-diggity gPhones that outdo all other Android phones would have their competitors abandon Android for a lack of being able to compete. Remember, Android isn't supposed to be a profit model, but more of a "profit moat," so they'd be undoing their entire business model by scaring away other device makers.

I honestly wish they'd give up this whole free bullshit and make a premium quality product with intention of providing a refined user interface experience that doesn't feel like it was developed at arms length as a least common denominator for a staggering array of hardware/software combination. Ah well. At least this profit-moat strategy leaves plenty of room for competition in the market.

They basically just bought a $12.5 Billion bundle of patents - albeit, a damn good bundle.

edit: Hmm, this article has a legitimate reasoning behind while Google may actually go verticle. I had no idea Samsung was making it's own platform!!

edit2: here's more good defense of the possibility that Google will forsake openness for going vertical: http://blogs.computerworld.com/18805/googles_motorola_move_underlines_apples_android_advantage?source=rss_blogs

Quote:

I don't believe it!

Look, I'm aware that Google says Motorola's Droid division will be a wholly-owned and independent subsidiary while the giant search engine company continues to bestow its patent litigation-peppered 'free and open' OS upon a willing and supplicant world, but I don't believe that promise will hold true forever. It makes no sense.

Why? Because no one sane will spend $12.5 billion (the equivalent of the entire UK economic aid package to developing countries in 2008) on something if they don't intend making full use of it.

Surely this means it is logical to expect Android development in future will move to offer better support for Motorola-made devices, even if only on a component level. Being part of Google's family is bound to give Motorola certain advantages.

Intratech · **Posted:** Mon Aug 15, 2011 2:33 pm

This news along with Apple being exposed for lying in German court to get an European wide injunction to stop sales of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 should make Fandroids day.

seraph · **Posted:** Mon Aug 15, 2011 3:09 pm

I prefer the term "Anboy," personally :lol:

Of course, there are publications claiming that this purchase "validates the superiority of Apple's model over the Android model." I don't think anyone knows what to expect.

Edit:

Oof - here's another one:

Quote:

Unless Google’s partners are completely stupid, they spent most of the day figuring out which mobile operating system they will use next.

http://www.loopinsight.com/2011/08/15/g ... he+Loop%29

I guess this guy doesn't know that Samsung's forsaking Android for "Bada," either.

Intratech · **Posted:** Mon Aug 15, 2011 5:01 pm

Actually I don't see that at all. I see Google buying Motorola Mobility for the mobile patents to protect Android and they have already said that they will allow Motorola to operate as an independent firm keeping it separate from Google and they will keep Android free and Opensource. They patents I'm guessing will be used to protect Android OS and the Mobile device partners from lawsuits from the likes of crApple, M$ and Nokia.

seraph · **Posted:** Mon Aug 15, 2011 5:58 pm

Right, that's the definite immediate motivation for the purchase. They're *damn* good patents, so that's clear to see.

Beyond that, say they make the Droid Nexus or some shit and it's a Googlorola phone, and it starts tearing up the market - becomes the first Android phone to outsell the iPhone. You know people are going to be suspicious of their connection and at least ponder if Google's giving Moto preferential treatment.

IMO, they need to scrap the "open platform" thing and start cranking out gPhones, or they need to divest Motorola. Not gonna lie, I hope they make gPhones. I've been spoiled rotten by my last four years of hardware accelerated UI, form-fitting middleware, and omgwtfgames.

edit: We need to look into Bada - this could be pretty effing bad :-/ Samsung's the only manufacturer doing Android right right now. I think Android would suffer terribly should Samsung choose to use Bada exclusively.

Intratech · **Posted:** Mon Aug 15, 2011 9:43 pm

Woah! Steve Kondik, the founder of CyanogenMod, has now been hired as a software engineer by Samsung Mobile: http://androidandme.com/2011/08/news/cyanogenmod-founder-joins-samsung-mobile-plans-to-make-android-more-awesome/

Hanners · **Posted:** Tue Aug 16, 2011 2:10 am

seraph wrote:

Beyond that, say they make the Droid Nexus or some shit and it's a Googlorola phone, and it starts tearing up the market - becomes the first Android phone to outsell the iPhone. You know people are going to be suspicious of their connection and at least ponder if Google's giving Moto preferential treatment.

I wouldn't be surprised if something like that does happen (well, the impressive phone part, maybe not outselling the iPhone), but even then I don't think Google will want to move away from their current model simply because the beauty of that model is that it encompasses a far wider market than Apple even seem interested in reaching.

seraph · **Posted:** Tue Aug 16, 2011 8:44 am

Considering Android hasn't really seemed to be an active grab at profit, they may be okay with Apple taking the lions share of the profit without taking a lions share of the market. Shit, I don't know a single person with an iPhone that doesn't "google" things constantly or doesn't have a gmail account.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Google's board of directors get hot and bothered by the thought of tweaking their per-activation or per-user profit, though, to try and get in on some of what has just propelled Apple into being the single most valuable company in the world right now. Honestly, Google isn't really winning anything in the smartphone industry except for the race to the bottom as inexpensive phones that are closer to feature phones than smartphones are being sold/activated like proverbial "hotcakes." That's not a horrible thing, though - it's a calculated and well-executed explosion into a market that could otherwise be populated with numerous threats to Google's core business: search and advertisement revenue.

Should Google stay its course, I think Apple and Google's profit models should fit together quite nicely in the same market -- they don't really step on each others' turf. In fact, sales figures demonstrate this. The rise of the iPhone didn't affect Blackberry (a lesser-quality, "last-gen" product/solution) too much, but the rise of Android came almost 1:1 at Blackberry's expense. The iPhone seemed to approach the market from the top down, and Android from the bottom-up.

I love this market - there's so much action. :mrgreen:

Quinn1981 · **Posted:** Tue Aug 16, 2011 9:49 am

Google's main business is still advertising. Android helps them keep people in their world. Their sense to protect it much have helped this purchase. I think it was a well founded purchase. They have such a large interest in Android working and Motorola has sold a great deal of Android phones. What's more is they're an American company.

seraph · **Posted:** Tue Aug 16, 2011 11:42 am

The intellectual property will definitely help - I just think it'd be morally unsound to not go to a vertically integrated model or divest motorola.

Edit: Chrissakes - I'm depressed now after reading this! http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2011/08/1 ... chrome-os/

Im not suggesting this is factual, but it's got a plethora of well supported points. It's cynical.

Hanners · **Posted:** Wed Aug 17, 2011 2:19 am

Some interesting points for sure, although the fact that its author writes books on Apple products for a living probably tells you what angle he's coming from with his piece...

seraph · **Posted:** Wed Aug 17, 2011 9:40 am

Right, though I find it to be a suitable devils advocate to all of the Google dicksucking going on right now. Also, how many bloggers can claim to be published authors?

Anyway, I've been reading up on this shit like a madman. Something just doesnt add up at all.

- Nokia's got a similar set of patents to Motorola, they've got the F/RANDLy patents (ones pertaining to communication mediums like 3G and radio) similar to Nokia, and Nokia only got a lump sum payment of $430M from Apple
- $12.5Billion is roughly what Google, the entire company, made in the last two years
- Motorola was threatening to start an "Android Civil War" by suing other Android manufacturers before this happened
- Motorola hasn't made profit in years, and the vast majority of their products and patents are for things that have absolutely no use to Google, including their set-top-box division, which produces set-tops strictly from 3rd party specifications. Other products, like telephones and two-way radios, dont even come close to being helpful to google, nor are they in large demand
- S&P has downgraded Google to "sell" on account of how fiscally unsound the deal is
- It's common to pay a couple billion just for patent licensing, and that would have been infinitely more helpful to Google since they wouldn't have all the baggage of a sagging, shitty company to deal with.
- We haven't heard word one on this from Eric Schmidt

....

If you ask me? Motorola fucked'em. Motorola fucked them hard. Unless Google can find a way to offload that Motorola business for some serious profit, or maybe even just liquidate most/all of it, they're fucked.

Intratech wrote:

Woah! Steve Kondik, the founder of CyanogenMod, has now been hired as a software engineer by Samsung Mobile: http://androidandme.com/2011/08/news/cyanogenmod-founder-joins-samsung-mobile-plans-to-make-android-more-awesome/

I wonder if they're going to enlist Mr.Kondik to work on Bada

http://www.betanews.com/joewilcox/artic ... 1313075608

Go look up videos of Bada 2.0 in youtube - it looks/sounds like a complete clone of iOS/OSX on the basis of it being a BSD kernel with a pretty front end that was limited to only core-application multitasking with whatever single app is in the foreground, etc. It's like they just cant help but copy the ever lovin' shit outta Apple. Whatever, at least they make good products.

Google buys 'Android partner' Motorola Mobility for $12.5B

Who is online