Google buys Motorola – so what now for LG, Samsung and HTC?

Motorola-Tablet-XOOM (1).jpgSo today’s shock story is that Google is buying Motorola, well the handset division Motorola Mobility, for a whopping $12.5 billion. That’s a 60% premium on its closing price on Friday and represents quite an investment.

The interesting bit for me though is where does this leave Google’s Android partners like HTC and Samsung? Is it Google’s intention to to create a complete phone eco-system like Apple and the iPhone, in that it owns the hardware the operating systems and the mechanism for delivering he apps? I guess it is.

If so where does this leave the other Android makers? Are they going to become second class Android citizens? Will Google be pushing the Motorola brand to the point where it is state of the art as far as Android goes and is inevitably delivering phones and tablets that are technologically superior to the other brands?

It could be that the real winner in all this is Microsoft. It already has Nokia working on its Windows phones and has a good relationship with LG, which might now fancy pushing MS phones more than Android ones. Maybe HTC and Samsung will also think that the Windows platform offers more a fairer playing field than the Android one.

Ashley Norris

6 comments

  • this story has made ridiculous conclusions that are far from true, yes google have brought Motorola but they have said they wont do what apple are doing, so really android will probably end up on top here

  • “It could be that the real winner in all this is Microsoft. It already has Nokia working on its Windows phones and has a good relationship with LG, which might now fancy pushing MS phones more than Android ones. Maybe HTC and Samsung will also think that the Windows platform offers more a fairer playing field than the Android one.”

    Wow. No stupid conclusions there.

  • flap that either opens up that grants you access to the touch-screen, and subsequently the speaker and microphone as well

  • Google would own all of Motorola’s patents, and could license them to (or just share them with) other Android licensees if it wanted to. Motorola invented the cellphone almost 30 years ago, so this is worth a lot.

  • or more likely Google will dispose of Motorola mobility manufacturers and design units, probably to a Chinese competitor after the acquisition goes through.

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