The comments about this being the end of android as open source are pretty reactionary.
C'mon folks. Remember the moat analogy? Search? MOOLA!
Google Buys Motorola For $12.5 Billion
31–40 of 393 posts
Re: Google Buys Motorola For $12.5 Billion
#32This 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…
Google has got to play the game until the rules of the game change. They need patents for protection. Yes, the patents are overpriced, but does Google have a choice?
Re: Google Buys Motorola For $12.5 Billion
#33By the look of motorola solutions website, there's nothing that links the newly acquired company, at least directly, to the mobile phone hardware market.
From Wikipedia:
Motorola Solution Corporate structure
The company is structured into two divisions:
Enterprise: Comprises communications offered to government enterprise
mobility business.
Motorola develops advanced data capture, wireless infrastructure, bar
code scanning, two-way radios and business pagers, wireless broadband
networks and RFID solutions to customers worldwide.
Government: Produces public safety and government products. Motorola
develops analog and digital two-way radio, voice and data communications
products and systems, Wireless LAN Securities and mobile computing,
among others.Re: Google Buys Motorola For $12.5 Billion
#34So 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…
From Larry's post: "This acquisition will not change our commitment to run Android as an open platform. Motorola will remain a licensee of Android and Android will remain open. We will run Motorola as a separate business. Many hardware partners have contributed to Android’s success and we look forward to continuing to work with all of them to deliver outstanding user experiences."
Edit: Interesting to see huge difference in rationality/understanding of those who read Larry's post versus the TC'd version of the story.
Re: Google Buys Motorola For $12.5 Billion
#35This 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.
Might be really good news for Microsoft on the day Windows Phone Mango RTM leaked.
Re: Google Buys Motorola For $12.5 Billion
#36good for Nokia, as it shows that Google now has the possibility to close down Android.
Re: Google Buys Motorola For $12.5 Billion
#37Interestingly, 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...
Well, there's Nokia for Win Phone 7 =)
Re: Google Buys Motorola For $12.5 Billion
#38By the look of motorola solutions website, there's nothing that links the newly acquired company, at least directly, to the mobile phone hardware market. From Wikipedia: Motorola Solution Corporate structure The company is structured into two divisions: Enterprise: Comprises communications offered to government enterprise mobility business. Motorola develops advanced data capture, wireless infrastructure, bar code sc…
It was Motorola Mobility, not Motorola Solutions: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_Mobility
Re: Google Buys Motorola For $12.5 Billion
#3963% premium...insanity. This is all about patents, isn't it? Instead of spending $4billion for patents, spend 3x as much, get a huge portfolio (I don't know how large, but it's supposedly quite large)..and a part of a company as well.
Almost certainly. The only other thing I can think of would be that they want to get out of the OEM business and make phones internally, but they'd probably buy a better phone manufacturer in that case. Motorola is loss-making.
Re: Google Buys Motorola For $12.5 Billion
#40This 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…
It's all about execution. It's not like it hasn't been in HTC/Samsung/Etc's best interest to release the best phones they could. Google showed as much with the Nexus line (same manufacturer, better handsets).