Google Buys Motorola For $12.5 Billion • Hacker News Board

Re: Google Buys Motorola For $12.5 Billion

#21

Post by Swannie » Mon, Aug 15, 2011, 11:55 AM UTC

It is worth noting this is the handset manufacturing part of Motorola.

Google's first foray into consumer electronics? That's big news. Phones and tablets. They are now competing directly in Apple's space.

Full control over the handset stack? (Did Samsung really push back that much on newer "GooglePhone" design?) Or access to patents? It's not really clear. However they do buy themselves a worldwide R&D facility.

Re: Google Buys Motorola For $12.5 Billion

#22

Post by mtts » Mon, Aug 15, 2011, 11:56 AM UTC

St-Clock wrote: post #6

Maybe Google did this partly to acquire patents from Motorola mobility (I don't know if they have any, but they must).

Yup, they do. 24500 of them, according to the press release they sent out when they split off from the rest of Motorola.

Re: Google Buys Motorola For $12.5 Billion

#23

Post by drink » Mon, Aug 15, 2011, 11:56 AM UTC

This is the beginning of the end for Android as an open platform. Google will have a financial incentive to release the best phones as Motorola devices. I would not want to be HTC today.

I like how Larry Page talks about IP in the blog post. After all of that talk about how patents were overpriced, Google comes out and spends more money than anyone on acquiring what is basically a terrible handset maker with a large IP portfolio. At the end of the day, Google does what's best for Google.

Re: Google Buys Motorola For $12.5 Billion

#24

Post by peq » Mon, Aug 15, 2011, 11:57 AM UTC

I hope google cares more about updating android for the motorola droid2. Maybe I will finally get 2.3 :D

Re: Google Buys Motorola For $12.5 Billion

#25

Post by mtkd » Mon, Aug 15, 2011, 11:57 AM UTC

... or Google takes a gun to the knife fight on patents - http://www.informationweek.com/news/mobility/business/231400...

Re: Google Buys Motorola For $12.5 Billion

#26

Post by haasted » Mon, Aug 15, 2011, 11:57 AM UTC

This is probably going to make some of the other handset manufacturers (HTC, Sony-Ericsson, etc) complain about Motorola having an unfair advantage when it comes to implementing Android.

Wonder if any of them are about to regret basing their smartphone offerings on Android? The move ought to strengthen the competition among the handsets, though, as Google can now ship their "dream-version" of an Android-phone.

Re: Google Buys Motorola For $12.5 Billion

#27

Post by ldng » Mon, Aug 15, 2011, 11:58 AM UTC

martingordon wrote: post #18

So now Google has blessed a hardware manufacturer as the official Android manufacturer, and despite Google's insistence that Android is open, I don't think we've seen the Honeycomb source code yet. How long until Google no longer offers the Android source at all? Samsung, HTC and the others are probably not very happy about this and will likely move them to start pushing their Windows Phone 7 handsets a bit harder th…

Well it's not like it's an unknown situation. It's more like going back to Symbian licensing situation a few years back.

Re: Google Buys Motorola For $12.5 Billion

#28

Post by starwed » Mon, Aug 15, 2011, 11:59 AM UTC

martingordon wrote: post #18

So now Google has blessed a hardware manufacturer as the official Android manufacturer, and despite Google's insistence that Android is open, I don't think we've seen the Honeycomb source code yet. How long until Google no longer offers the Android source at all? Samsung, HTC and the others are probably not very happy about this and will likely move them to start pushing their Windows Phone 7 handsets a bit harder th…

>despite Google's insistence that Android is open, I don't think we've seen the Honeycomb source code yet

The word "yet" is mildly disingenuous. No one is waiting for them to do that -- google said a while ago that it wouldn't happen, but that they would release the source to Ice Cream Sandwich.

Re: Google Buys Motorola For $12.5 Billion

#29

Post by Jabbles » Mon, Aug 15, 2011, 12:00 PM UTC

Keeping Android open whilst treating their own phone manufacturing fairly will be a big challenge for Google. I hope they manage it. If done correctly the result should be a improvement in Android for all manufacturers, as the internal demands of Motorola will want to be heard, but cannot be prioritised.

I am still puzzled as to how Skype cost $8billion.

FYI Motorola Mobility had 24,500 patents when it was launched. http://mediacenter.motorola.com/Press-Releases/Motorola-Mobi...

Re: Google Buys Motorola For $12.5 Billion

#30

Post by kylec » Mon, Aug 15, 2011, 12:01 PM UTC

Interestingly, this means the only manufacturer-neutral smartphone OS is now Windows Phone 7. iOS is on Apple, Android is on Motorola/Google, Blackberry on RIM, and webOS on HP/Palm. I wonder if this means we'll see an increase in WP7-based phones from HTC, Samsung, and LG...