On Monday, Google announced it had bought Motorola development division Mobility for a staggering £7.7 billion. The deal comes seven months after Motorola split the business into two; Mobility that develops and manufactures mobile phones, and Motorola Solutions that covers wider technologies for corporate customers and government.
As a result of the acquisition Google will own all 17,000 technology patents that Motorola currently has the rights to. Essentially, this means that if another mobile system wants to use that technology they have to pay Google for the right to do so.
Recently Microsoft has been openly critical of Google and the handsets that use Android as an operating system – particularly HTC – as these handsets use Microsoft’s patent technology and therefore pays Microsoft every time an Android phone is sold.
So where does this purchase and associated legal issues, leave the rest of the mobile phone market? Apple, Blackberry and Microsoft have huge advantages in this space, as all own proprietary handset and operating systems. Android, despite its rapid growth, is an open source platform (used by handsets such as HTC and Samsung) and had been at a disadvantage for not owning a handset (and patents) to accompany the operating system to escalate it to the ‘iconic’ status that the iphone has attained. This could well now change.
Google intends to run Motorola as a separate business and to ‘Supercharge Android’ (according to Larry Page, Google CEO), whilst still keeping it as an open platform for other handsets to use. With the Motorola patents, mobile handset technology, Android operating system and the highest smartphone penetration in the UK, it like Google will be providing Apple with some serious competition! This could even reduce market domination by the iPhone – providing Google gets the handsets right.
The move really has has also shaken up the mobile industry and rumours are spreading about Microsoft acquiring Nokia for its patents and technology and Google looking at buying Blackberry for the addition penetration in the UK market. However, from where What’s Hot is standing Google has got an opportunity to dominate the market in the next year or so even without acquiring Blackberry. Exciting times ahead for the global mobile market indeed.
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