Here comes Motogoogle! Even though regulators claim they will keep a “close eye” on Google, I don’t think anyone is surprised that U.S. and European regulators approved Google’s acquisition of Motorola Mobility, the arm that focused on portable devices. Most people think that this is Google finally getting into the patent war that has thus far been dominated by Apple and Microsoft. Those people are probably right, as Motorola has a ton of mobile patents (upwards of 17,000) that are included in the 12.5 billion purchase. But nobody really wants to talk about patents – Well, not me anyway. What I think is on everybody’s mind is will Google tap the Motorola talent to finally develop its own mobile device to coincide with its own mobile platform?
Apple does it and hides its fine-tuned iOS platform in its beautiful (and very fragile) hardware. BlackBerry does it (but not very well as of late) with its software/hardware combo. Microsoft, while it’s never really developed its own hardware outside of the XBox, is pretty much “besties” with the mobile manufacturing giant Nokia, who is itching to make a splash in the U.S. market with its upcoming Windows Phone devices like the Lumia 900.
In my opinion, I think it would behoove Google to build a mobile phone from front to back in-house. Patents are important in this day age, and Google is feeling the heat from all directions, but why not tap Moto-talent to build and an awesome flagship Android device in addition to getting Apple, Microsoft, and others to back off the patent assault?
Sure, HTC, LG, and Samsung who are all “fat off the land” that is Android, will feel left out as a result of Google favoring its own hardware when it’s time for updates to the software, but I think your average consumer will appreciate Google taking more control over its open-source (and as a result, heavily-fragmented) OS.
Maybe MotoGoogle can actually put up the mobile hardware/software combo that consumers can only dream up, in addition to throwing some patent shade of their own towards its competitors?
Let us know what you think in the comments section.