AZ Nerdz: Google to acquire Motorola Mobility

[RootDKJ]

Google also picks up the chunk of Motorola that makes cable product. ...the old Jerrold 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.

fify

I'm rooting for Android OS cable boxes, but anything is better then the Gemstar crap that's on there now. The cable portfolio is pretty huge, but seriously lacks innovation. I'm optimistic. Good thing Moto just split themselves into two companies. They also just switched their whole email system from Exchange to Google about 6 months ago.

 

[Nick]

I've got a rooted Thunderbolt now. I came from a droid. I wonder if this will remove all the crapware that typically comes on the Motorola phones nowadays. Oh and the Q about the unlocked bootloaders... probably already mentioned here

 

[Geoff]

fify

I'm rooting for Android OS cable boxes, but anything is better then the Gemstar crap that's on there now. The cable portfolio is pretty huge, but seriously lacks innovation. I'm optimistic. Good thing Moto just split themselves into two companies. They also just switched their whole email system from Exchange to Google about 6 months ago.

You can't innovate with the profit margins the MSOs are willing to pay. You have to make mass market commodity products where you're only making a few bucks per unit. You'll never get the engineering costs back for doing something truly innovative. If you do innovate, the MSOs insist that you give your intellectual property away to CableLabs so your competitors can make cheap knock-offs. The MSOs are also very centralized and don't exactly have a brain trust in their engineering groups.

 

[RootDKJ]

You can't innovate with the profit margins the MSOs are willing to pay. You have to make mass market commodity products where you're only making a few bucks per unit. You'll never get the engineering costs back for doing something truly innovative. If you do innovate, the MSOs insist that you give your intellectual property away to CableLabs so your competitors can make cheap knock-offs. The MSOs are also very centralized and don't exactly have a brain trust in their engineering groups.

That's because the MSO's engineering teams usually don't have any field experience, so when they make "decisions", they really don't understand the impact it has on the customers or operations.

Agreed about CL, although I applied for a job there once.