Balls
daringfireball.net
Balls
1–10 of 122 posts
Re: Balls
#2Motorola held out for a full acquisition at a premium far above the company’s actual value, and threatened to go after its sibling Android partners if Google didn’t acquiesce.
Say what you will about Gruber and his Apple fanboyism, this rings true to me. By and large, the article seems very astute.
Re: Balls
#3Does Gruber ever add any real information in an information theoretic sense? He seems to be on Apple's side 100% of the time. (I guess he suggested that the App Store approval process was broken at some point...)
He mostly just appears to be a pro-Apple pundit who has a popular blog that gets a lot of revenue in advertising. But I never see Cringely or Dvorak posts upvoted. What gives?
This does not seem to be very reasoned analysis. He calls the CEO childish and Android (the largest smartphone OS in the US?) desperate. This feels like a hyperbolic opinion piece. What should I be getting out of this article?
Re: Balls
#4All I can think about is that Microsoft/Apple blew billions on patents which forced Google to blow billions more to block their move.
Think how much real innovation $20 billion could have created if it weren't for the shitty patent system.
Re: Balls
#5The primary issue that I have with Gruber's argument is that it seems to reverse some of his more recent assertions about the Google Patent Wars(TM). Haven't we been hearing from Gruber for months on end how patents were going to somehow destroy Android (or cripple it, which is basically the same thing)? Now we're supposed to simply ignore that Google bought 3x the Nortel patents at 3x the price[1] (Gruber's math, not mine), a move that greatly diminishes (if not negates) their loss in the Nortel auction? Now we're supposed to focus on Motorola's problems as a handset manufacturer?
I get that Gruber's mainly going after the over-the-top Lyons piece (a piece which strikes me as poorly thought out and terribly argued). But it does seem like this is Gruber's first move toward a pivot away from the importance of patents in Android vs. Everyone.
You know, those patents that Gruber has been trumpeting for weeks now as the death knell of Android.
Just ignore those.
[1]: Or cheaper?: See recoiledsnake's comment below: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2890038
Re: Balls
#6I see this: Google was a happy accident because of the web.
Given the trajectory of Apple, where would the web be in 10 years if Google wasn't throwing everything, and clearly they are doing so, at keeping their platform alive.
Android is about keeping the web a dominant platform as we shift to the next generation of computing.
Google is right to bet the farm on keeping that endeavor alive.
It appears as though they got backed into the corner, but we've never seen Google make a purchase like this.
It's more expensive than usual. And it's not an obvious up-and-comer.
I imagine the #1 thing they could do would be to start picking off staff from both companies to form a super-group to push the hardware into yet unknown territory.
(As a person whose career interests align with Google's I hope the knock it out of the fucking park.)
Re: Balls
#7Motorola held out for a full acquisition at a premium far above the company’s actual value, and threatened to go after its sibling Android partners if Google didn’t acquiesce. Say what you will about Gruber and his Apple fanboyism, this rings true to me. By and large, the article seems very astute.
Threatening to go after other Android partners makes little sense for Motorola. It's not something Motorola would do to get most profit from it. If Motorola has threatened Google something, it would be to sell to Microsoft. That will make much more sense.
Re: Balls
#8Motorola held out for a full acquisition at a premium far above the company’s actual value, and threatened to go after its sibling Android partners if Google didn’t acquiesce. Say what you will about Gruber and his Apple fanboyism, this rings true to me. By and large, the article seems very astute.
>Motorola held out for a full acquisition at a premium far above the company’s actual value,
According to http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2888292 the real purchase price is closer to $7B, not $12.5B as stated in the article, due to cash and deferred tax assets.
The Nortel patents went for $4.5 billion and this acquisition gives Google both a ton of patents as well as a company with physical assets that makes the Droid line of phones and the Xoom tablets. Not to mention, Google has $40B in cash or short term investments just laying around to be put to use.
Re: Balls
#9Motorola held out for a full acquisition at a premium far above the company’s actual value, and threatened to go after its sibling Android partners if Google didn’t acquiesce. Say what you will about Gruber and his Apple fanboyism, this rings true to me. By and large, the article seems very astute.
Threatening to go after other Android partners makes little sense for Motorola. It's not something Motorola would do to get most profit from it. If Motorola has threatened Google something, it would be to sell to Microsoft. That will make much more sense.
I would bring up IP as a very important for differentiation (among Android vendors). We have a very large IP portfolio, and I think in the long term, as things settle down, you will see a meaningful difference in positions of many different Android players. Both, in terms of avoidance of royalties, as well as potentially being able to collect royalties. And that will make a big difference to people who have very strong IP positions.
http://www.unwiredview.com/2011/08/11/motorolas-sanjay-jha-o...
Re: Balls
#10The primary issue that I have with Gruber's argument is that it seems to reverse some of his more recent assertions about the Google Patent Wars(TM). Haven't we been hearing from Gruber for months on end how patents were going to somehow destroy Android (or cripple it, which is basically the same thing)? Now we're supposed to simply ignore that Google bought 3x the Nortel patents at 3x the price[1] (Gruber's math, no…
Gruber has for a long time made his living off of propping up strawmen and beating them down, much to the amusement of his readers. Everyone knows that Leander Keahney and Dan Lyons are insane, only Gruber goes to the pain of proving them so, with little insight or value added to the discussion, other than to incite his audience to gleefully laugh at the stupidity of the 'other'. I can't believe it actually took me so many years to realise this, but he is off my rss now.