Google Buys Motorola

Google Buys Motorola, A Patent Powerhouse

Google has purchased Motorola for $12.5 billion cash! Barely dipping into their $39 billion cash reserve.  This deal allows Google to secure its integration in the smartphone industry and enter the hardware industry. This aggressive move allows Google to compete with Apple’s iPhone, enabling them to manufacture their own phones on the Android platform. However, other smartphone makers will still be able to run the Android software.

Google Buys Motorola

Patents, Patents, Patents

Since Google does not have it’s own huge collection of patents, like Apple, Microsoft and other companies, it is being targeted with lawsuits. With only 187 patents of their own they are a target for many patent infringement suits. The suits are aimed at slowing the adoption of Android smartphones. Motorola has been around since the industry began, creating and inventing mobile-phone technology. Acquiring the 17,000 patents and the 7,500 pending patents of Motorola Mobility may help Google slow down the attacks.

Shopping Around

Google did shop around before buying Motorola Mobility, looking for mobile device patents to achieve better leverage, to hopefully deter litigation. They were out bid on Nortel patents by a group of companies, including Apple and Microsoft. Another company up for grabs is Interdigital. After watching Apple, Google, and Micosoft fight over Nortel’s patents Interdigital put itself up for bid. Pierre Ferragu, an analyst at Sandor C. Bernstein in London said, “Yesterday you could sue Google and you weren’t taking any risks because they didn’t have any patents. Today it’s the same as suing Motorola.”

History of Motorola

A Brief History of Motorola

Motorola has been around since 1928, originally known as Galvin Manufacturing Corp, it’s first product was a battery eliminator. In 1930 the Motorola brand was born with introduction of the very first car radio. The company, renamed Motorola in 1947, made its name as a pioneer in early televisions and the two-way radio in World Ward II. Motorola helped lay the foundation for the ever growing mobile-phone industry that we know today as the creators of the first pager and the first cell phone. Will Strauss, an analyst at Tempe Arizona-based Forward Concepts Co. said, “Motorola was a pioneer in this business. They certainly have a lot of intellectual property. It will certainly level the playing ground quite a bit. It’s going to give them an awful lot to defend Android with.”

Cementing Their Hold On The Smartphone

Competitors will be worried, as Android is already a very powerful competitor. Android has over half the touchscreen smartphone and around 20% of the tablet market, as it is. This acquisition may have put a dent in some of Palm and Microsoft’s future plans. Buy buying Motorola, Google has been given an edge in the future of the mobile web, by cementing their hold on the smartphone.

Google Android Phone

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