“In a previous article, I talked about how Apple (AAPL) forced Google (GOOG) into a panic purchase of Motorola Mobility (MMI) for $12.5 billion dollars,” Cameron Kaine writes for SeekingAlpha.
“One of Apple’s advantages has always been its platform unification whereas others such as Google’s Android, had more of a fragmented platform,” Kaine writes. “Basically Google saw an Apple advantage and wanted to strategically take it away by its acquisition. But the question is, will it be enough?”
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Kaine writes, “It boggles my mind to see why Google, a successful software and services juggernaut, would make this deal and enter the hardware market. I keep going back to one simple answer; it works for Apple, so why not become a clone? Or better yet, ‘if you can’t beat them, join them.’ …Needless to say, its management will have its hands full to produce the return on what only appears to be an expensive attempt at becoming an Apple clone.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
Motorola’s value to Google found in 18 patents – August 22, 2011
Google’s acquisition of Motorola set to doom Android, Chrome OS – August 17, 2011
Apple CFO Oppenheimer says Google spent ‘a lot of money’ on Motorola Mobility – August 17, 2011
Google grasping at gargantuan straws…only to see them fold.
A toilet bowl has water in it. But, it is not a clone of an ocean or a sea.
People want the whole Apple deal not some tiny part of the experience.
HP tried to integrate the software and hardware with Palm’s acquisition and it failed completely in about a year. Now Google wants to do it from the other end, with Motorola. It may work but they need to focus on their integration, give it enough time and they should not follow anyone else’s agenda. Or are they in a hurry? So Google now has both software and hardware divisions but they don’t have the experience or expertise that works so well for Apple.
HP didn’t really try. Pulling the plug after the first release is barely 90 days old is not trying.
At least Microsoft is consistent. By version 3, they usually have something usable.
Google has shot itself in the foot big time with Motorola.
The Chinese have decided to completely fork Android removing all the Google goodies.
Dell has decided to go with the Chinese Android version that rejects Google.
Samsung has warned it is going to sue other Android manufacturers for violating Samsung patents by Feb 2012.
Amazon has forked Android to an incompatible version unique to Amazon which rejects Google’s apps etc. too.
No body wants to be Google’s slave boy anymore other then the common FanDorid who doesn’t even know what hit their Massa’s platform.
Google can still back out of the Motorola deal but I personally think it is too late.
Iv’e went back to Yahoo! Google is becoming notorious for providing something one day, then removing it the next, most likely due to IP infringement… And the Schmidt guy reminds me of a complete mess of a CEO. Apparently never learned to think first before speaking. Tired web.
Douglas, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Yahoo! Search doesn’t truly exist anymore. If you scrollbto the bottom of the search, you will see that they are powered by Microsoft Bing. You can thank now-former Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz for that one. Google and [Microsoft] Bing are the only choices now.
Also Bing gets their results from Google so…really there is only Google.
http://tinyurl.com/46hlnq7
While this is not a completely inaccurate statement, it needs some clarification. Here’s an excellent write-up about what, specifically, Bing does that led to Google accusing them of “cheating”. Read the whole article. It’s actually a pretty good read.
http://selnd.com/n5oWCB
http://blekko.com/
Excellent alternative to goog and M$, and when you understand the slash tags it becomes even better (watch the video)
BTW I have no connection to blekko whatsoever (other than using their search engine)
Or, if you’re privacy-conscious and you also want to avoid the “search bubble”, then check out http://duckduckgo.com/
Wow, thanks for the enlightenment everyone…
@ Tessellator, I’m digging, I mean slash tagging blekko!
I’d like to see the end results of all the litigation against Android before contemplating the outcome of the Google/Motorola merger.
Investors don’t seem to be punishing Google for tossing away $12.5 billion on a poor hardware company like Moto, so they must not be too worried. Considering all the bad press I’ve heard over the acquisition I’m a bit surprised that Google is doing as well as it is.
I honestly didn’t think any company was going to acquire Motorola due to the fact that it continually bleeds cash with little returns. I’d always thought for the last five years or so that Motorola management was deliberately trying to destroy the company for their own personal gains.
Yet, today I see investors happily pumping back money into Google like nothing ever happened.
Android was too little too late. Back when the palm trio was the preferred smat phone next to the BlackBerry Google unofficially announced it’s plans to develop Android. Back then there was a huge market for Android. But Apple beat them to the punch and release iOS nearly 2 years before google’s Andrpid OS was ready for prime time. And only now are the Android powered devices become powerful enough to run the operating system.
Apple understands that the success of the smart phone comes not from the ability to run apps or a touch screen but from a fluid user interface that responds to the user so that using the phone is effortless. It is a battle to get things done on Android powered devices because the UI is much less responsive to the user input.
Google’s only chance of saving the Android OS is to develop and test in an environment where the end user product is the same as the development product. As ling as 3rd parties are allowed to modify the core operating system, the end user experience will be less than enjoyable. Perhaps with the buyout of Motorola Mobility Google will finally have a phone and operating system that reflects Google’s vision. But it is likely too late.
There seems to be this misguided theory among many technology companies that says, “If Apple can do it, it must be easy enough for anyone to do.”
The Googles and Microsofts of the world look at the iPhone and say, that’s easy. All you need is to slap a touch screen on a custom OS and you can make phones just as good as the iPhone.
Now Google is looking at the tight integration of software and hardware that Apple has spent decades perfecting and saying, that’s easy, we can just buy a hardware company, put them in the same room as the software people, and our technology will be just as well integrated.
It’s like all these computer companies are afraid to admit that Apple is special in any way, even as Apple continues to change the landscape of digital technology again and again.
Turns out you can run a search engine on alcohol
Seemed to work out ok for MicroShat.