It is not clear how Google can remain a business partner with the likes of HTC and Samsung while directly competing with them as Motorola. It also makes one wonder why Google has remained relatively hands-off (on the surface) in the legal challenges that HTC and Samsung have endured on Android’s behalf. That might be looked into by the authorities that must approve the Google purchase of Motorola Mobility.
The new Google/Motorola venture will surely give HTC and Samsung, both suffering from legal battles over the use of Android, a reason to pause and perhaps think things over. The two companies have been defending Android and their use of the platform on Google’s behalf, and now Google is a major competitor. The tenuous legal position of Android just got a lot more confused for them.
Motorola is a reasonably positioned as a mobile phone manufacturer, but it’s not one of the ones at the top of the pile – which is why many think Google chose to buy it. Motorola make some amazingthe stock, and basic workhorse to smartphones that look good and function well. Google buying them gives them a manufacturing system that can design phones to their specifications, and a more solid control over the profit created by their Android based systems. Motorola is already what is considered a ‘dedicated android manufacturer’ but many people, from Acer to analysts have decided that this bold technology move isn’t primarily going to benefit Google – it’s going benefit Microsoft. phones, however, from
Why it’s going to benefit Microsoft
Microsoft are now a major smartphone competitor, and to be honest, the Windows 7 based phones are a serious challenge to Apple and Android’s stranglehold on the market, especially after Psion finally dropped out of the race. Windows is a familiar interface and their newly announced ‘eight’ system, which many people are very excited about – and it looks like the extensible new layout for their menus and controls is going to unify over everything, though of course all of this is still speculation.
The short answer is if Microsoft can leverage a similar deal, now that Google have done so, they might find that they can come out ahead of even Apple – and create a strategic alliance with other companies. Even though Google have bought Motorola Mobility, the important thing to bear in mind here is that they were *already* strategic partners, and there was definitively a bias towards letting Motorola get their hands on the newer operating systems before anyone else (the Xoom was the first to run Honeycomb).
UPDATE:
Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc., the mobile-phone maker that's being bought by Google Inc., is reviving its iconic Razr handset to take on Apple Inc.'s iPhone.
The new version of the Razr has a 4.3-inch touch screen and is 7.1 millimeters (a quarter-inch) thick, Motorola Mobility CEO Sanjay Jha said today at a press conference in New York. Verizon Wireless will sell the device for $299.99 in the U.S. with a two-year agreement, starting next month. It will also be available in Asia, Europe, Latin America and Africa.
