“What do Google and Motorola get from being under the same management? Google gets access to Motorola’s home networking gear, GPS devices, cable boxes, and cord/cordless phones, all of which work directly against what Google has been trying to deliver in its Android push,” Daniel Eran Dilger writes for RoughlyDrafted Magazine. “In return, Motorola will destroy third party interest in Android and Chrome OS, while doing nothing to provide Google with the retail stores, PC platform, and local software experience it lacks.”
“Google simply bought the biggest loser in the smartphone industry out of desperation at a high price that it will continue to pay for many years,” Dilger writes. “Sound familiar? Oh right, HP did the same thing when it bought Palm out of desperation to gain independence from Microsoft and avoid dependence upon Android. Perhaps the Google acquisition of Motorola will help HP.”
Much more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Gomer37” and “Joe Architect” for the heads up.]
It’s about time Daniel waded into this mess… glad you could join us sleepy face.
sleepy face … LOL!!!
I too am glad Daniel writes about this subject.
http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2011/08/16/googles-acquisition-of-motorola-set-to-doom-android-chrome-os/#more-4561
Dilger has 3 articles on the acquisition over the last couple days.
So other than the ten million reasons that it is a bad stupid deal, Google will be fine, right?
I thing Google shareholders have a lot to worry about!
“A fool and his/it’s money are soon parted.”
There’s a reason why some people are writers and why some, well are CEO’s.
Didn’t they only buy Motorola Mobility? If I’m not mistaken all of the other products listed in this article are produced by Motorola Communications which has been a totally separate company since they split apart in 2010.
Good point. Someone with an account at roughly drafted should post a comment about this inaccuracy. It’s hard to justify a strong position if you don’t have all the facts right.
Perhaps you should have performed a bit of due diligence before hitting “Publish”. It’s hard to justify a statement such as yours when you don’t have all the facts straight…
Thank God the standards for hitting “publish” in MDN comments is so high…
Oh wait: Daniel’s right, as he usually is. You won’t make a lot of money of betting against RDM’s factual accuracy. It’s some of the best-researched tech writing on the Apple beat.
According to moto’s own press releases set top boxes and phones went to mobility’s home division in the split.
http://www.motorola.com/Consumers/US-EN/Consumer-Product-and-Services/
nah, the article is right… google walkie talkies and baby monitors, YAY!
And those walkie-talkies and baby monitors report home to the Googleplex!
No, Moto Mobility includes the other crud as well.
You’re mistaken.
The really funny part about this purchase is that it is very likely that everyone who needs a license for the patents (that would possibly include Apple, possible through its suppliers) has one already . ONce you have a license there is no way to sue. Google might not have bought itself any protection or weapons in this purchase.
There is always a way to sue…
Sounds like an old, old Roy Orbison refrain:
“… and there’s always a way to Sue!”
HP has the best chance of rising up to challenge iOS in the next couple of years for these reasons:
1. HP has plenty of money from its other businesses to support WebOS while it attracts developers and customers;
2. HP isn’t dependent on a third party to develop its OS;
3. WebOS was actually designed to work on mobile devices, and is under the hood a pretty good OS;
4. HP doesn’t need WebOS to turn a profit right away;
5. HP didn’t pay that much for Palm ($1.2 billion) comparatively speaking.
That would work if only the TouchPad didn’t suck so hard, which it does, unfortunately.
Well sucking is something that HP and Android have in common, the difference might be maybe HP has learned its lesson.
Google is always only five characters in a browser address field away from total irrelevance. Over 90% of their business is dependent on those five little bookmarked letters. No other major tech company is in such a precarious position. The more they screw around chasing bad product strategies, the more vulnerable their core business becomes.
When a better search engine comes along, it will be a very short transition for the Google audience, and a huge shock to Google corporate.
six letters…
Oops, I’m so used to typing ‘yahoo’ whenever I think to ‘google’ something!
4 letters
BING
You say that, but of course, Google has its own browser (which does Google search), it has Google search built into competing browsers (like Safari), and has millions of Google search box on the web. They also have a mobile OS that does google search and even a ‘pseudo-desktop OS’ that does google search.
So your argument may have made sense like 10 years ago, but not now. And certainly not with the mindshare Google has. It’s not like 3 billion people are suddenly ‘forget’ about Google.
Well those are still bookmarks, a point release of any browser or mobile OS can update a browser search engine real quick.
Chrome is shit, it only gets attention because IE has historically been so bad and the preferred replacement Firefox has has some recent quirks. I don’t think it’s a stable place for a browser platform to flourish long term. And it’s certainly hasn’t helped Google’s bottom line. Plus don’t forget… Google’s market share is padded by their chrome based search crawlers running 24/7 to rack up page hits.
with so much TouchSack left in the channel, HP is going to have a hard time convincing any stores to carry their tablet. They will have to open HP stores…. to have the touchpad sit on their own shelves.
You don’t get it. A dud of this magnitude brings repercussion which scope goes way beyond the single product not selling. Ask Microsoft how there Zune venture turned out? How much money did they lose? The last version of the Zune, was actually a very competitive design, but consumers where no longer interested. The thing is that it’s no like you buy an HP tablet, you find out that it sucks, you buy an iPad next, then you later go back to HP? That just does not happen. In the period you own the iPad, you probably already invested money in iOS applications, so more than likely, your next purchase will be an iPad upgrade. The same thing goes for the iPhone. HP had it’s chance, you don’t get a second chance unless you fix the problem real quick, and that just hasn’t happened.
Since the iPhone, bought iPads, Mac Book Pro, Apple TV2, and an AirPort Extreme 5G. The latter is awesome!
I gave away two HP printers.
I would not even consider an Apple for 30 years, now I would not consider a Windows PC. There is a huge difference, you get a life, when you switch to Apple.
Welcome to the party!! Do you feel silly for waiting so long? Think of all the bad advise you received before you became enlightened and took the plunge. Once you go make, you don’t go back!
Mac not make
I think those who are serious about a particular business should be encouraged. HP, RIM and Nokia should be credible competitors. Google is not serious about the telephony business. To Google it is only a loss leader to its ads business. It attracts all sorts of parasites like Samsung, HTC, Dell and other opportunists to join in the butchering of a legitimate business. Google is the worst form of terrorist in the American business landscape.
Google has no manufacturing DNA. Integrating an essentially hardware manufacturer into its corporate culture would be like eating meat when you’re a vegan. It might work but you’d break out in cold sweat most nights. Besides over half Motorola’s revenues comes from feature phones. You can’t monetize search on feature phones so that’ll be like dragging round a boat anchor.
Sure cause the company they just bought has no manufacturing experience at all lol.
Ill def agree there are a lot of big question marks right now.
Im looking forward to seeing the results good or bad.
Yeah, they have experience, but it isn’t good. Lets examine a few facts: They used to supply Processors to Apple, why did they get dumped? They failed to deliver updates on their promised timeline. They couldn’t keep pace, couldn’t get the yields Apple demanded (during their downturn no less). ANd could not deliver n their own promises to vendors.
Now lets think about that half baked tablet: Send it back in to get the features fixed/turned on? Really? Google Motorola quality control issues. Look at the multiple models of phone recalled in 2004. Look back to june when their ceo was blaming software (Android) on his phones poor performance? How is that gonna work moving forward? Look at the forums full of droid owners blasting the quality control. You only need one moto product to learn that you do not want another.
What do you get when you mix half baked shoddy hardware with a half baked software company? FAILURE – Googles epic fail has begun.
The early success of these geek created a culture of arrogance, thinking the can take anything from anybody and put out there for free or sell it.
These people have no clue how to even behave in the business world. Now they ave created an army of enemies and a goofy following of geeks that worship them.
This will be Googles downfall. It has begun.
HP has Palm. Microsoft basically has Nokia. Google has proposed to Motorola Mobility. And Apple has everyone by the nads.
this deal is so brazenly stupid on its face that it boggles the mind to see all the Google-aide drinkers grasp at any straw to come up with reasons why it is a bold leap forward for Google. talk about a Reality Distortion Field!
that parrot’s not dead, it’s just pining!
biggest blunder since AOL/Timer Warner. they must be rolling in the aisles down in Cupertino.
Google bought Motorola for the patents & software. They will prolly spin off/sell off the hardware side of Motorola to one of it’s Android vendors.
Samsung to dump Android