When Google announced its plans to acquire Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion back in August 2011, Google claimed that the main reason for the deal was to acquire Motorola's many patents. It also said that, in terms of its Android mobile operating system, Google would treat Motorola as a separate company and still offer the same deals for other smartphone makers to release devices based on Android.
Now a new story on Business Insider claims that isn't really true at all. The story, which uses unnamed sources, claims that while Google may at first wanted to purchase Motorola just for its patents, it has now changed its thinking and will now use the Motorola business to launch its own branded smartphones and tablets.
Officially, a Google spokesperson said they could not comment as the deal to merge Google and Motorola is not yet closed. The deal has been approved in the US and Europe but it still has to be approved by regulators in China, Taiwan and Israel before it becomes official.
If true, this would mean that Google wants to control the process of designing, manufacturing and finally selling smartphones and tablets with the Android OS on its own once the deal to merge with Motorola is completed. This mirrors what Apple does with its iOS devices like the iPhone and iPad.
The article speculates that if Google does indeed go through with this plan, it could benefit Microsoft as other smartphone makers like Samsung, HTC and LG could jump ship on Android and start using Windows Phone in their devices.
22 Comments - Add comment