Related
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/07...eat-google-for-nortel-patents/?ref=technology
Big problems for Android coming?
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It's funny how far off their bid was...
Why would that make a difference? They didn't have the patents before the sale so nothing really changed.
Just so you guys know, this stuff happens all the time. Google was putting in weird bids and one of them was even for the number for pi. 3.14...billion. Theory has it that Google didn't really want the patents but wanted the price driven up some. They've done it before. If i can find the link to the article i'll post it for you but in essence this is no big deal.
I take all of this with a grain of salt. Google is an extremely smart and innovative company. They knew they didn't need to receive those patents, or they could have outbid. I agree, it was more of a process to draw the bid higher, that's all.
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Actually, now that i've read other sources Google does say they were disappointed. Geez they were outbid by a conglomerate of Apple, RIM, Sony, and Microsoft. Yeah, that's fair. Still doesn't seem like a crushing blow according to most articles. Just an inconvenience.
$4.5b for the Nortel patents is overpriced when Google can just buy RIM for $15b.
Means that Android Manufacturers play more royalties per device than people who are part of the consortium or who already have a license. It will affect the race to the bottom, where cheaper Android devices will have a higher Build of Materials costs due to higher licensing costs vs other OS's who have this pegged in.
For OS Vendors, it's a strategic armoury for patent disputes. For Manufacturers its all about the build cost.
bleach168 said:
$4.5b for the Nortel patents is overpriced when Google can just buy RIM for $15b.
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I'd like to see Google buy Apple and MS as well as RIM and Sony. That would be a hoot. Google is the only company of them all that has a humanity-driven business model. If Google were ever to fold, I guarantee the world would turn dark.
I have hope Google has tricks up its sleeves to get past this business with Apple. The Nortel stuff I think is inconsequencial. But I hope Google can come out on the top side of this. Google certainly has skillful and genius programmers and devs so I see them coming up with alternatives to any roadblocks brought on by infringed patents or loss of patents.
I wuv google <3
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897
Lets wait and watch.
Google wanted Nortel's patents because their own patent portfolio is quite small. When you get sued by companies like Apple and Microsoft, it is VERY GOOD to have a strong patent portfolio. It gives you a position of strength in the license negotiations.
Losing the Nortel's patents may mean that Google has to take patent licenses from folks like Apple and Microsoft.
Looks like Google is ready to take it to 'em. And this is correctly targeting *all* parties involved. Not just Apple. And I'm glad to see Google stand up and wallop. I hope Google balances out the situation because Google is the only real and true, "worthy" company among them all. Google stands for humanity. The others stand for profits at all costs. With Google here, the others are usable and enjoyable. Without Google here, the others are the ruination of the industry.
http://www.engadget.com/2011/08/03/google-slams-apple-and-microsoft-claims-hostile-organized-cam/
MartyLK said:
Google stands for humanity. The others stand for profits at all costs.
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Oh come on now, let's not get carried away. Google is a business as well. They care about making money. And they do it by collecting as much info about you as possible and then selling it to advertisers.
Now, I am against this patent BS and fully support Google in their effort to fight it. But lets not make Google into more than they are.
Praise Jesus they're getting involved!!
lol google is more powerful, and will eventually just be as evil as any of those other companies.
Google is becoming too much of a monoply. They're just very good at concealing their true intentions.
I don't like patents?
Yes, completely forget about the phrase "Don't Be Evil." True, they are not as evil as Apple, but they still have some shady stuff.
It'll be interesting to see how this all plays out. Google didn't come off looking too good after the whole Nortel thing by immediately going to the DOJ and blogging about how broken the patent system is(which it is). Android seems to be everyone's target these days
Ouch.
http://techcrunch.com/2011/08/03/microsoft-just-kicked-google-in-the-nuts/
canadariot2312 said:
Ouch.
http://techcrunch.com/2011/08/03/microsoft-just-kicked-google-in-the-nuts/
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Was just about to post the same, so Microsoft asked google if they wanted to bid with them and google said no and yet they blog that crap...
How exactly would Google bidding with MS help them? They need patents to defend themselves from MS, to establish a MAD situation. They can't do that with patents that are jointly owed by MS too.
And this all shows the BS-ness of patents. Where's the stuff about patents encouraging innovation and stuff? Nowhere. All I see is patents being bought as bargaining chips.
I mean, buying some patents and using them to sue is totally about someone copying what you invented, riiiiiiight. Because buying = inventing, sure.
I can only repeat: It's all BS.
Gusar321 said:
How exactly would Google bidding with MS help them? They need patents to defend themselves from MS, to establish a MAD situation. They can't do that with patents that are jointly owed by MS too.
And this all shows the BS-ness of patents. Where's the stuff about patents encouraging innovation and stuff? Nowhere. All I see is patents being bought as bargaining chips.
I mean, buying some patents and using them to sue is totally about someone copying what you invented, riiiiiiight. Because buying = inventing, sure.
I can only repeat: It's all BS.
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Click to collapse
Well it works like this, you buy a patent with one of your competitors and then it can't be used against you by them.
It also saves you money as the cost is shared and there is one less bidder at the auction to ramp the price up trying to out bid you.
Sure, you then can't use it to make a deal with MS to infringe some of their patents for free, but if you don't win the bid, you can't do that anyway, and they can use it against you.
Tone_ said:
Was just about to post the same, so Microsoft asked google if they wanted to bid with them and google said no and yet they blog that crap...
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all together
1
2
3
FAIL GOOGLE =)
that is all
Monopolies are never a good thing. Whenever one company becomes too powerful and controls everything that goes on in your life it becomes a little frightening.
Gusar321 said:
How exactly would Google bidding with MS help them? They need patents to defend themselves from MS, to establish a MAD situation. They can't do that with patents that are jointly owed by MS too.
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Or they could suck up their pride, have patents along with Apple, Oracle, Microsoft, etc., have this cross-licensing patent deal and have less lawsuits. On the other hand, they can buy all the patents and use them for "defensive purposes."
I don't like the patent system either and I am pretty sure that Google won't fix it.
Booms! Plurals! Gets used to its!
xaccers said:
Well it works like this, you buy a patent with one of your competitors and then it can't be used against you by them.
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Yeah, but there's tons of patents that aren't part of this particular portfolio. So all there would be is Google spending a lot of money while not being any safer from litigation.
canadariot2312 said:
Or they could suck up their pride
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What does this have to do with pride? It's all about needing to amass a large portfolio of patents just so that when you're sued (and you *will* be sued, because it has become impossible to create *anything* without infringing), you have something to defend yourself.
Gusar321 said:
Oh come on now, let's not get carried away. Google is a business as well. They care about making money. And they do it by collecting as much info about you as possible and then selling it to advertisers.
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their street view cars can read e-mail too, ya know, they have wifi-detection software in the antennas of those cars.
[/tin foil hat]
every company sells info, hate to break it to ya. and the conspiracy nuts fail to reealize those antennas are there so they can detect a wifi hotspot like a coffee shop or private network, and put into the maps software.
imagine if you are a traveling buisiness man with a laptop, and don't have a wireless tether on your phone, also if you are in a dead zone (serious, all verizon customers, go to mound city, mo, just TRY to use your data there, you will be lucky if you get 1x, must have somthing to do with the bluff)
Google's biggest problem right now is Apple, especially with the recently ruling Apple got against HTC <I would post link if I could but I'm not allowed yet>. So it would have been beneficial for them to jointly own them with Microsoft, for a couple reasons. First being Apple isn't going to go after Microsoft, their patent portfolio is too big. But more importantly it gives Google more defense against Apple which is really what they need right now. I believe I read somewhere that Google only has about 1000 patents related to the wireless and I'm sure Apple has ton more.
I do agree the whole patent system is rediculous for software but unfortunately it is what it is for now.
termleech said:
Google's biggest problem right now is Apple, especially with the recently ruling Apple got against HTC <I would post link if I could but I'm not allowed yet>. So it would have been beneficial for them to jointly own them with Microsoft, for a couple reasons. First being Apple isn't going to go after Microsoft, their patent portfolio is too big. But more importantly it gives Google more defense against Apple which is really what they need right now. I believe I read somewhere that Google only has about 1000 patents related to the wireless and I'm sure Apple has ton more.
I do agree the whole patent system is rediculous for software but unfortunately it is what it is for now.
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well, technicly google got into the mobile market back in 2003 when they purchased then start-up company Android Inc.
and people forget that the iPhone wasn't the first capacitive touch screen phone
anyone remember the LG Prada? (yes it was a feature phone but the point is that it was a touch screen phone, the first of it's kind)
****, let's go EARLIER then that, the IBM Simon, wasn't really a "cell phone" maybe bag phone, but it had a resistive touch screen.
"We have a mantra: don't be evil, which is to do the best things we know how for our users, for our customers, for everyone. So I think if we were known for that, it would be a wonderful thing." - Larry Page
I totally want to have Google's babies!
When I say Google is for humanity, I'm speaking in relation to their sphere of involvement, not a "Christ" or anything weird like that. Google cares about benefiting humanity with convenience and comfort. Example: If Google knew of a perpetual free energy source, they would reveal it to the public. The others might be inclined to keep it secret from the public because of deals or influence from battery makers or oil companies. Google would laugh at an oil company who wanted them to keep free energy from the public.
If Google discovered alien life, they wouldn't be inclined to keep it from the public in order to keep church safe. They would reveal any and every information that can potentially free humanity from tyranny. NASA would oblige the government for the sake of religious lobbyists in Washington to keep it secret so humanity can remain under control of the church that much longer.
Sure, Google is a business. Google is made up of people who have the same needs everyone else does and need to make a living. That doesn't mean they have to conduct their business like the "good 'ol boys" do. If Google fails, humanity will remain in darkness that much longer until another entity comes along and rocks the system.
So now that Google has acquired Motorola, what does this mean for us? I would assume the big Android backers like LG and Samsung have plan B's? I know samsung has the Bada O.S., not sure what LG will do. But we can all expect that as of today, all plans for Samsung to continue android development has all but ceased. Wouldn't make good sense for them to continue to put money in Google's pocket now that they are in the hardware business.
in case you haven't seen it...
http://www.bgr.com/2011/08/15/google-to-acquire-motorola-mobility-for-12-5-billion/
orateam said:
But we can all expect that as of today, all plans for Samsung to continue android development has all but ceased.
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Click to collapse
It would be silly for Samsung to stop making android phones. Your assumption is just that, and it's not a very good one.
This deal isn't closed. It's still subject to regulatory approval.. and if it gets approved we wont see anything for a while..
Posted via tapatalk from my Samsung Stealth.
writing is on the wall.
http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/dail...V0aGFib3U-?sec=topStories&pos=1&asset=&ccode=
If you believe google bought Motorola for just the patents, pass the pipe this way....
Google could have paid a fraction of that, to buy the patents and give motorola a long term lease on them that expires beyond the patent. This occurs frequently. Google just did this a few weeks ago where they bought 1000+ patents from IBM.
Google bought Motorola for both reasons. They realized that apple is running the table with profits on hardware. You can only make so much money giving away your stuff for free.
I hate when companys do stuff like this. This will only turn into another iphone type company. You will see the cost of phones going up.. Google is trying to be the next Apple.
We can all kiss open source goodbye.
Goodbye ANDROID hello MOTOROID OR MOTODROID
Relax, this is a good thing.
http: //androidandme.com/2011/08/news/google-acquires-motorola-mobility-in-order-to-protect-android-from-patent-trolls/
lefunque said:
Relax, this is a good thing.
http: //androidandme.com/2011/08/news/google-acquires-motorola-mobility-in-order-to-protect-android-from-patent-trolls/
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+1
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Definitely a good thing. Google will remain open source (they're not dumb enough to put an end to that) and it helps with the frivolous legal battle apple and microsoft has been going after everyone about. I just hope they finally unlock the motos soon. Always liked the phones but I love custom roms too much to deal with a locked bootloader (thus why my X2 went bye bye)
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I wouldn't worry. Google purchasing Motorola actually benefits all Android device manufacturers.
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What does Google buying Motorola MOBILITY have to do with the other android OEM's? Nothing. Google just did this to back up all their OEM's with Motorola's patents.
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Another thing people don't seem to realize is that if Google does begin to behave badly, Samsung et al can just fork the code base.
Nothing is stopping Samsung, LG, HTC, Amazon, BN, and others from forming a consortium to develop there own brand of forked Android OS for use on their own smart phones.
For those that are optimistic, sorry to disappoint, but this is not. I’ve seen this same situation many times and it never works out. In fact, think of the last time this situation has turned out positive for the co-dependents.
I was at a huge oracle conference when oracle stabbed their 2 biggest sponsors in the heart. These sponsors (HP and Redhat) paid millions for sponsorship. They had their logos on stages, bags handed out, and BANG! Oracle announced on Day 1 that they were acquiring SUN and supporting all unix O.S. by themselves. HP had just the previous year made a huge deal with oracle on an agreement to be their primary hardware supplier and even worked on Oracle’s newest tech, oracle exadata, with them. At first, all the lovey dovey stuff came out and HP and oracle both said this was going to be great for both of them. Redhat said the boost in Unix OS would be good for them. NOT TRUE. Redhat is barely staying alive after putting all their eggs in the oracle basket. HP partnered with Microsoft to make the next big thing in the HP slate, vaporware, only to have to buy the PALM O.S. which isn’t working too good. It’s always like this. The mobile industry is about to become a 2 horse race. Samsung, HTC, LG, I see T.V. Sets in your future.
orateam said:
For those that are optimistic, sorry to disappoint, but this is not. I’ve seen this same situation many times and it never works out. In fact, think of the last time this situation has turned out positive for the co-dependents.
I was at a huge oracle conference when oracle stabbed their 2 biggest sponsors in the heart. These sponsors (HP and Redhat) paid millions for sponsorship. They had their logos on stages, bags handed out, and BANG! Oracle announced on Day 1 that they were acquiring SUN and supporting all unix O.S. by themselves. HP had just the previous year made a huge deal with oracle on an agreement to be their primary hardware supplier and even worked on Oracle’s newest tech, oracle exadata, with them. At first, all the lovey dovey stuff came out and HP and oracle both said this was going to be great for both of them. Redhat said the boost in Unix OS would be good for them. NOT TRUE. Redhat is barely staying alive after putting all their eggs in the oracle basket. HP partnered with Microsoft to make the next big thing in the HP slate, vaporware, only to have to buy the PALM O.S. which isn’t working too good. It’s always like this. The mobile industry is about to become a 2 horse race. Samsung, HTC, LG, I see T.V. Sets in your future.
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Click to collapse
Nope, different situation. Oracle's bread and butter is, and has always been, very proprietary software and consulting services. Once they had there own underling OS and control of Java, they quickly began bringing as much as possible in house. That was the Oracle mentality from the giddy-up though and Red Hat/HP should have been aware of that. Very common with companies like that (MS, for example, has a very long and sordid history of doing the same thing).
Google is quite a bit different. For one thing, their bread and butter isn't in Android as an OS, it is in data collection and analytics (for advertising, marketing, and such) as well as various cloud services. Hardware margins being what they are, and Google's core business being what it is, it will be in Google's best interest to make sure that Android continues to be on as much hardware as possible.
yeah if anything the acquisition should be a good thing, hopefully they will take the moto phones and unlock them and put some pressure on other companies to follow suit. i think they will do some good things with moto's hardware and get other companies on top of their stuff, IE updates, unlocked bootloaders, not such garbage UI's, etc, etc......
Raccroc said:
Nope, different situation. Oracle's bread and butter is, and has always been, very proprietary software and consulting services. Once they had there own underling OS and control of Java, they quickly began bringing as much as possible in house. That was the Oracle mentality from the giddy-up though and Red Hat/HP should have been aware of that. Very common with companies like that (MS, for example, has a very long and sordid history of doing the same thing).
Google is quite a bit different. For one thing, their bread and butter isn't in Android as an OS, it is in data collection and analytics (for advertising, marketing, and such) as well as various cloud services. Hardware margins being what they are, and Google's core business being what it is, it will be in Google's best interest to make sure that Android continues to be on as much hardware as possible.
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Click to collapse
Love ya response. It's a very good point. I looked a little more into it and found that motorola aquired General instruments. The company every cable company uses for it's DVR. apparently motorola owns the DVR patents and is currently suing TIVO. if motorola wins, nobody will be able to record T.V. but them. If Google can get into every Cable box and keep apple from ever creating a DVR.......
Samsung said this:
“We welcome today’s news, which demonstrates Google’s deep commitment to defending Android, its partners, and the ecosystem.”
J.K. Shin, president of Samsung’s Mobile Communications division.
If anything this will boost more innovation.
"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."
-Larry Page (http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/supercharging-android-google-to-acquire.html)
Google is anything but stupid, and they're not going to go shooting their partners -- which are the reason Android's so successful -- in the foot. Yes, this is obviously going to result in stronger competition for HTC, Samsung, LG, etc., and of course they aren't going to be thrilled about that, but it also drastically strengthens them against patent trolls and exorbitant patent licensing fees can cut into profits even more than stronger competition.
Plus, keep in mind that Motorola has a seriously low market share compared to HTC or Samsung -- they're in seventh place worldwide. This isn't like if Google bought HTC (which could have afforded to do -- but didn't because HTC has a tiny patent portfolio). In other wordS: if Motorola were the only one making Android handsets, Android would quickly fall to third or fourth place in the OS race.
Anyways, long story short: this means nothing for us other than that the next time we buy a phone, Motorola handsets may be better options. Of course, it just may spur competitors to keep up faster with updates, etc., leading to better devices all-around. Either way, we, the consumers, win.
Falcyn said:
"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."
-Larry Page (http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/supercharging-android-google-to-acquire.html)
Google is anything but stupid, and they're not going to go shooting their partners -- which are the reason Android's so successful -- in the foot. Yes, this is obviously going to result in stronger competition for HTC, Samsung, LG, etc., and of course they aren't going to be thrilled about that, but it also drastically strengthens them against patent trolls and exorbitant patent licensing fees can cut into profits even more than stronger competition.
Plus, keep in mind that Motorola has a seriously low market share compared to HTC or Samsung -- they're in seventh place worldwide. This isn't like if Google bought HTC (which could have afforded to do -- but didn't because HTC has a tiny patent portfolio). In other wordS: if Motorola were the only one making Android handsets, Android would quickly fall to third or fourth place in the OS race.
Anyways, long story short: this means nothing for us other than that the next time we buy a phone, Motorola handsets may be better options. Of course, it just may spur competitors to keep up faster with updates, etc., leading to better devices all-around. Either way, we, the consumers, win.
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+ 1
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i get that is what is being said, but if i were in Samsung or HTC's camp, i would be re-considering my funding into a technology where the software i've been depending on could be pulled away at any moment. Now that google has the hardware side covered, if HTC and Samsung keep throwing money that way, it's a big risk.
Microsoft could always have bought a hardware company like Dell, but it knew what that would do to the confidence of other builders. IMO, google should just have bought the patents.
orateam said:
i get that is what is being said, but if i were in Samsung or HTC's camp, i would be re-considering my funding into a technology where the software i've been depending on could be pulled away at any moment. Now that google has the hardware side covered, if HTC and Samsung keep throwing money that way, it's a big risk.
Microsoft could always have bought a hardware company like Dell, but it knew what that would do to the confidence of other builders. IMO, google should just have bought the patents.
Click to expand...
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Like someone else said, it's in Google's best interest to keep android on as many devices as possible. I seriously doubt anything will change for sammy or htc.
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Hey guys,
What are your opinions on Google acquiring Motorola? Will this change Android? Will the next Google Phone be a Motorola manufactured phone? What do you guys think this will mean for us?
surgeborg said:
Hey guys,
What are your opinions on Google acquiring Motorola? Will this change Android? Will the next Google Phone be a Motorola manufactured phone? What do you guys think this will mean for us?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It gives Google some serious ammo for it's fight with Apple. Buying Motorola gives Google the cellphone technology patent. Take a guess what that means.
They didn't do it just for the hardware manufacturing but Motorola Mobility has a **** load of patents relating to cellphones and a lot to do with wireless communication in general.
This should allow them to incorporate technologies into their cellphones and other manufacturers who use android, that do not violate patents owned by apple. This way it would allow google and android handset manufacturers to spew out as many android handsets as they like without being attacked by apple.
Android adoption was getting a bit scary because of the manufacturers being sued by apple. It was seriously daunting for any small manufacturers because they wouldn't have the cash to go up against apple. This way apple would prevent further competition by not even allowing it to start. Obviously this was very bad for el goog hence buying moto mobility + their patents.
It might also allow google to further optimise android for hardware in the same way wp7 and ios do.
Bring back the talk about.
Definitely good for google. That patent portfolio gives them a lot to fight with.
past the obvious patent issue, i am excited about Google acquiring a hardware OEM. While google has said they will stay out the hardware biz, they ARE going to have a hardware manufacture under their belt. what i envision happening is moto being treated as a standalone company, but updates for all new phones super fast (nexus style) and the end of motoblur once ICS comes around.
at least, that's what i'd like to happen.
The only thing I want to see out of this is Google doing to Motoblur what Peter Gibbons and Michael Bolton did to the faulty copier machine in Office Space.
I want to see baseball bats and fists FLY at that horrid software package.
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I hope this means Motorola phones will get faster updates to the OS, including security updates (which I never remember getting on my Samsung Captivate).
sweet!!!
I hope that google combined with Moto, will blow crapple out of the skies and water!!!
Hopefully this will lead to unlocked bootloaders!!! hell jea
Real nice write up about our issues from the big dog...WIRED. Heres a small portion. Click for the full story. I've been tweeting and posting this link on HTC, ATT and Google facebook pages..
Dear Google: AT&T Locked Down the Best Android Handset Ever, and It’s Your Fault.
The whole promise of Android was that it was an open ecosystem — a contrast Google loves to draw with Apple’s closed system.
At the Google I/O conference in 2010, Google vice president Vic Gundotra intimated that Apple had become the Big Brother it promised to smash.
“If you believe in openness, if you believe in choice, if you believe in innovation from everyone, then welcome to Android,” Gundotra said. “If Google did not act, we faced a Draconian future where one man, one company, one device, one carrier would be our only choice.”
But carriers, who strangled handset and mobile application innovation for years until Apple wrested control from them, can’t stop themselves from bloating and crippling phones — including the ones Google touts as exemplars of openness.
http://www.wired.com/opinion/2012/05/google-android-open/
great story and post. i understand where these companies are coming from in locking down phones like the HOX. But like many others, it drives me insane and really does completely mock the integrity of Android. Glad to have Wired on board, hopefully Google, HTC, ATT at least take note of the consumer's malcontent and realize that the further they pander to the masses, the worse their product becomes. I was a truly a deep fan of the OG and 3G iphones but Apple (with the help of carriers) has gone into a SHARP decline over the years and now is really it's worst enemy. I can't accept that as an option of fate for Android.