Google buys Motorola Mobility.

[Hook]

I suspect Ed will do a headline news item on this, in which case feel free to close this thread.

Apparently Google is buying their own Smartphone hardware division.

Google to Buy Motorola Mobility for $12.5 Billion - NYTimes.com

Not sure what I think of this. On the one hand, it is helpful to control both software and hardware as Apple does. On the other hand, it puts their other partners like HTC and Samsung in a funny position.

Also, Hardware has never really been a core part of Google's business model. Not sure how they will handle it.

Might be picking up a lot of nice patents though.

Anyone more knowledgable than me have thoughts on this?

[r0k]

Apple has been busy suing Samsung and winning in the EU at least and now that Google buys Motorola, does this mean Apple can now sue Google directly?

I look forward to hearing Ed's take on this. Motorola was in a faster free fall than Nokia and RIM put together until they started offering Android smartphones and their feature phones couldn't prop them up financially. This changes the smartphone landscape quite a bit.

[Ed Hardy]

As expected, I did a Headline News article about this, just a few minutes after H's post. You can find it at:

Google Shakes Up the Smartphone Market by Buying Motorola Mobility Discussion

I've combined the posts that were here with that thread.

I also did a blog post on the subject. For more info:

BLOG: Google Acquiring Motorola Mobility: It's All About Patents

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