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Google is apparently ready to buy HTC

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Re: Google is apparently ready to buy HTC

#51

Post by simonh »

bryanlarsen wrote: post #48
simonh wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where else would the Android handset makers go, Microsoft? Actually that sounds good, we could do with a third viable handset OS, but that's a digression and at this point a bit of a fantasy. They have nowhere else to go. Back in the early days of iOS and Android the consensus seemed to be that the smartphone OSes were pretty much done. To compete with iOS all you had to do was match it's features, or catch up, and o…

Google has tens of billions a year in revenue from Android. Only in comparison to Apple revenue or Google's advertising business can that be called a pittance. :)

In a 2016 court filing it was revealed Google made $30bn on Android in the 8 years since 2008. Their annual revenue in 2016 was $89bn, of which 87% was from search. Half of that is from mobile, but 90% of that comes from iOS so Android search revenue is about $7bn. On top of that they make a few bn from the Play store. So their total Android related revenue is probably about $10bn a year.

So no, Google do not make tens of billions a year off Android. They may possibly make a profit off of it of a few bn a year, but that's about the best we can say. On the other hand they pay Apple $3bn a year just to be the default search engine in Mobile Safari. That's how big the gulf is in the mobile market between them and Apple. They make about 4x as much money off iOS as they do off their own operating system. If I was running Google there's no way I'd consider that acceptable, because all that iOS revenue is at Apple's discretion.

Re: Google is apparently ready to buy HTC

#52

Post by ac29 »

dis-sys wrote: post #15

The only reasonable motivation would be the VR stuff, not really the smartphone bits from HTC. I mean in 2017 who still buy/use HTC phones? Let's be honest - the phone business of HTC is dead.

>in 2017 who still buy/use HTC phones?

Anyone with a Google Pixel.

Re: Google is apparently ready to buy HTC

#53

Post by dis-sys »

seunosewa wrote: post #40
dis-sys wrote: post #15

The only reasonable motivation would be the VR stuff, not really the smartphone bits from HTC. I mean in 2017 who still buy/use HTC phones? Let's be honest - the phone business of HTC is dead.

Google has good marketing and brand recognition while HTC makes great products that they can't seem to sell. It could work.

HTC makes good products? why they stopped making "good" or "half good" phones?

They don't make good products, they were just lucky and had an early start in the smartphone business.

Re: Google is apparently ready to buy HTC

#54

Post by bitmapbrother »

bmcusick wrote: post #50

This can't be about direct revenue. We all know that Android handset business is barely profitable. Even Samsung makes a fraction of what Apple does, and the rest are rounding errors. I expect this is Google trying to prevent the Android market from becoming a Samsung monopsony. They're half the market, and everyone else is less than 5% (except Hauwei, which is 6%). Given the profits available, I bet half of these bu…

>We all know that Android handset business is barely profitable. Even Samsung makes a fraction of what Apple does, and the rest are rounding errors.

What a silly statement. Samsung's smartphone division reported profits of 3.6 Billion USD in their Q2 2017 financials. To claim that 3.6 Billion in 1 quarter is barely profitable is beyond ridiculous.

As for the second largest smartphone OEM - Huawei:

As we look at the overall revenue for Huawei during the first half of the year [2017], the company was able to bring in $42.04 billion, at an operating margin of 11%.

https://www.xda-developers.com/huawei-releases-financial-rep...

Re: Google is apparently ready to buy HTC

#55

Post by bitmapbrother »

tonfa wrote: post #31
jpkeisala wrote: post #4

Why do they want to buy HTC? Are there some significant patents they are holding?

According to wikipedia they are the pixel's manufacturer: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel_(smartphone)

And Foxconn makes the iPhone yet Apple sees no need to buy them.

Re: Google is apparently ready to buy HTC

#56

Post by bitmapbrother »

I don't see any financial upside to this rumor. What does Google gain from buying a struggling smartphone OEM and inheriting all of the financial burdens associated with it? In fact, this makes about as much sense as Apple buying Foxconn just so that they can own the factories that make the iPhone. You don't need to buy a smartphone factory to make smartphones in this day and age. Design your smartphone and have Foxconn, Pegatron or LG build it for you.

Re: Google is apparently ready to buy HTC

#57

Post by pjmlp »

baybal2 wrote: post #27
anilgulecha wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unlikely -- Tizen would be dead on arrival, being inferior in all ways to Android, including the app ecosystem.

>Unlikely -- Tizen would be dead on arrival, being inferior in all ways to Android, including the app ecosystem. Would it matter when "an Android phone" means a Samsung phone 9 times out of 10 in Western markets When an average American comes to Best Buy to buy a phone, he does not deliberate over things as abstract to him as OS of a phone. He sees an Apple phone, a Samsung phone, and a random Chinese phone.

But he/she surely wants to be able to use his/her favourite apps, right?

Re: Google is apparently ready to buy HTC

#58

Post by atroll »

dis-sys wrote: post #15

The only reasonable motivation would be the VR stuff, not really the smartphone bits from HTC. I mean in 2017 who still buy/use HTC phones? Let's be honest - the phone business of HTC is dead.

My main smartphone is an HTC from 2014, 2Gbs of RAM and a full hd screen, won't replace it in a few years.

Re: Google is apparently ready to buy HTC

#59

Post by grwthckrmstr »

petra wrote: post #38
bryanlarsen wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because they've done it before, they'll have learned from their mistakes and will attempt to avoid repeating them. For example, they put in place a firewall to ensure that Motorola wouldn't have any advantages over other Android manufacturers. I don't expect them to do that again. That being said, major acquisitions are hard and I expect it to fail once again. But they'll mostly make different mistakes rather than th…

Dropping the Android Firewall ? if Google does, would any future partners trust it and collaborate with it ? and without that, many of Google's efforts, including it's moonshot, will have much lower chance of sucsess. Would they risk that ?

At this point, all smartphone oems selling Android devices, do they really have a choice?

Android is too big. The oems are too invested. They need Google. Google on the other hand, could flip the switch one day and say that they do not need them anymore.

Re: Google is apparently ready to buy HTC

#60

Post by boona »

The more Google has been back pedaling on their unofficial motto "Don't Be Evil", the more wary I become when they start acquiring companies. I like HTC and I would like it to stay that way. I hope this merger doesn't happen.
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