AZ Nerdz: Google to acquire Motorola Mobility

[Glenn]

This is pretty big news. I wonder how this will effect the other phone makers down the road? Will Andriod now become more "Apple-ish"; with more control over the total experience with hardware and software?

http://www.bgr.com/2011/08/15/google-to-acquire-motorola-mobility-for-12-5-billion/

 

[o3jeff]

Will have to see how this plays out. Like Glenn said will it become Appleish and what will happen to all the other Android phone manufactures.

 

[Morwax]

Sold some MMI shares I had from the MOT split. Damn I wish I was all in, %60 pop..
Good move for Google..

 

[bvibert]

Will have to see how this plays out. Like Glenn said will it become Appleish and what will happen to all the other Android phone manufactures.

I seriously doubt that they would leave the other Android manufacturers hanging. It could be a difficult balance, though; between trying to make the Motorola Droid products the best on the market, and keeping the other manufacturers happy. It'll definitely be interesting to see how good they do the hardware side.

 

[Geoff]

Google also picks up the chunk of Motorola that makes cable product. ...the old General Instruments business with set-top boxes, cable modems, and CMTSs.

This was mostly done so Google can acquire the Motorola patent portfolio. RIM, Microsoft, and Apple partnered to buy the Nortel patents and everybody is lining up to sue Google for patent infringement. I've been at this patent infringement game for a long time. If you don't have an extensive patent portfolio as a deterrent, those patent prosecutions can put you out of business.

 

[bvibert]

This was mostly done so Google can acquire the Motorola patent portfolio. RIM, Microsoft, and Apple partnered to buy the Nortel patents and everybody is lining up to sue Google for patent infringement. I've been at this patent infringement game for a long time. If you don't have an extensive patent portfolio as a deterrent, those patent prosecutions can put you out of business.

I was wondering if it had something to do with that.

 

[Glenn]

I'm curious to see what happens to HTC and the like. I'm sure things will be fine for now...but in the future, will Google put the latest OS and features on their handsets first?

 

[bvibert]

I'm curious to see what happens to HTC and the like. I'm sure things will be fine for now...but in the future, will Google put the latest OS and features on their handsets first?

It's up to the manufacturer and carrier to test and tweak the Android OS for their phones. I'm sure they all get beta copies of the new stuff to play with before it's officially released. I wouldn't be surprised if Motorola phones have some more advantage in the future though.

 

[o3jeff]

It's up to the manufacturer and carrier to test and tweak the Android OS for their phones. I'm sure they all get beta copies of the new stuff to play with before it's officially released. I wouldn't be surprised if Motorola phones have some more advantage in the future though.

My poor phone(HTC) is still recovering from the Gingerbread update from the beginning of summer. I'll never update it again with the latest version until they have time to work the bugs out.

 

[Geoff]

It's up to the manufacturer and carrier to test and tweak the Android OS for their phones. I'm sure they all get beta copies of the new stuff to play with before it's officially released. I wouldn't be surprised if Motorola phones have some more advantage in the future though.

I don't think most cell phone manufacturers have the talent to really fix core Linux & Android problems. The typical appliations programmer working for a Chinese/Korean cell phone company just doesn't have those specialized skills.

 

[bvibert]

I don't think most cell phone manufacturers have the talent to really fix core Linux & Android problems. The typical appliations programmer working for a Chinese/Korean cell phone company just doesn't have those specialized skills.

I'm not saying that the hardware manufacturer is necessarily changing the Linux Kernel or anything like that, but they are doing work to make it work with their hardware/custom front end stuff. My point being that Google doesn't necessarily control who gets the newest OS first. AFAIK they put it out there and let other people figure out how to use it for their products. I don't think Google is doing custom builds for each Android powered phone out there. I'm sure they intend for it to work with as many different hardware platforms as possible, but with all the options out there they can't cover everything, not in the first shot anyway. I'm sure the hardware manufacturers submit bugs and improvement requests if they run into a problem. That's one area where I see Motorola getting preferential treatment.

It took me a while to get the update to Android 2.2 a while back, because LG and/or Verizon weren't in a big rush to update a lower level phone. I know of some phones that were purchased in the last year or so that are stuck at 1.6 (AT&T).

 

[bvibert]

My poor phone(HTC) is still recovering from the Gingerbread update from the beginning of summer. I'll never update it again with the latest version until they have time to work the bugs out.

That sucks. You can't put it back to the old version? When I got upgraded from 2.1 to 2.2 it was a big improvement, but that was months after 2.2 was released to other more mainstream phones. I doubt I'll ever see 2.3 (gingerbread) on my phone without rooting it.

 

[o3jeff]

That sucks. You can't put it back to the old version? When I got upgraded from 2.1 to 2.2 it was a big improvement, but that was months after 2.2 was released to other more mainstream phones. I doubt I'll ever see 2.3 (gingerbread) on my phone without rooting it.

No going back once you upgraded. I'm not sure if you can root the gingerbread yet

 

[bvibert]

No going back once you upgraded. I'm not sure if you can root the gingerbread yet

There's custom ROMs for Gingerbread on my phone out there if I wanted to root. Not really sure I want to do that though.

Actually I guess my warranty on my phone just ran out, which was one of the reasons I didn't want to root....

 

[Geoff]

I'm not saying that the hardware manufacturer is necessarily changing the Linux Kernel or anything like that, but they are doing work to make it work with their hardware/custom front end stuff. My point being that Google doesn't necessarily control who gets the newest OS first. AFAIK they put it out there and let other people figure out how to use it for their products. I don't think Google is doing custom builds for each Android powered phone out there. I'm sure they intend for it to work with as many different hardware platforms as possible, but with all the options out there they can't cover everything, not in the first shot anyway. I'm sure the hardware manufacturers submit bugs and improvement requests if they run into a problem. That's one area where I see Motorola getting preferential treatment.

It took me a while to get the update to Android 2.2 a while back, because LG and/or Verizon weren't in a big rush to update a lower level phone. I know of some phones that were purchased in the last year or so that are stuck at 1.6 (AT&T).

Android, like any other complex piece of software, is a layered architecture. If you're trying to extend it or enhance it, you need access to the people who implemented it or it will take you forever. Motorola now has that advantage. Everybody else just uses what's given them in the development kit.

 

[bvibert]

Android, like any other complex piece of software, is a layered architecture. If you're trying to extend it or enhance it, you need access to the people who implemented it or it will take you forever. Motorola now has that advantage. Everybody else just uses what's given them in the development kit.

That's pretty much what I'm saying. There's still plenty of tweaking to be done though, whether it's to a manufacturer's customizations to the UI, or perhaps to drivers for the hardware that may not work quite the same with an updated OS, or maybe some of their own prepackaged apps.

 

[Geoff]

That's pretty much what I'm saying. There's still plenty of tweaking to be done though, whether it's to a manufacturer's customizations to the UI, or perhaps to drivers for the hardware that may not work quite the same with an updated OS, or maybe some of their own prepackaged apps.

Device drivers invariably come from the semiconductor vendor. ...particularly for Android. There isn't enough margin in smart phones for any manufacturer to do much customization. Way more than 90% of the code base is off-the-shelf. The Android market is enormous but no one implementation has a dominating market share.

This Google deal gives Motorola a big leg up simply because the lines of communciation between the development groups become so much more efficient.

 

[BeanoNYC]

There's custom ROMs for Gingerbread on my phone out there if I wanted to root. Not really sure I want to do that though.

Actually I guess my warranty on my phone just ran out, which was one of the reasons I didn't want to root....

I run cyanogenmod 7 on my Moto Droid which is a gingerbread build. Works great but isn't my main reason for rooting the phone. I rooted the phone so I could overclock it and to tether wirelessly to my laptop without having to pay any added tethering fees. As an aside, with ROM manager installed on my phone, I get OTA access to any updates to the build. There are nightly, albeit buggy, updates.

 

[Geoff]

I run cyanogenmod 7 on my Moto Droid which is a gingerbread build. Works great but isn't my main reason for rooting the phone. I rooted the phone so I could overclock it and to tether wirelessly to my laptop without having to pay any added tethering fees. As an aside, with ROM manager installed on my phone, I get OTA access to any updates to the build. There are nightly, albeit buggy, updates.

I kinda need my phone for work. I don't think I'd want to be a perpetual Beta site.

 

[BeanoNYC]

I kinda need my phone for work. I don't think I'd want to be a perpetual Beta site.

It's not perpetual beta. You can choose to update with Beta versions as you wish. I rely heavily on my phone for my summer job (tour guide) and never update past their official releases. When I'm back in the classroom during the winter I get a little more daring with beta builds.