KwitkoSheriff of Banning (Retired)By the thing near the stuffIcrontian
edited August 2011
I see advantages and disadvantages to this. MOT makes good hardware, probably has a boatload of patents, and strong brand recognition. On the downside, how will this affect HTC, Samsung, and other Android handset makers?
If Android only bought Moto to defend against patent trolling, and operates Motorola independently as promised (e.g. no Google DroidX two years down the line), then this is very positive for the other manufacturers. Their primary defender just cracked a case of stim paks and went nuts.
If, however, Google screws with the chain of command by planning and releasing a Google DroidX or something, then it's shit in the soup and bad news all around. Never compete against your manufacturers. I think Google knows this, though.
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KwitkoSheriff of Banning (Retired)By the thing near the stuffIcrontian
edited August 2011
I don't think Google is dumb enough to shoot themselves in the foot by alienating the majority of its handset manufacturers. I'm sure the patent portfolio was reason #1.
Google successfully raised the price on the Nortel patent auction to $4.5 billion for 6000 patents. Apple and Microsoft wanted to pay substantially less, and everyone was wringing their hands about the inflated value of a patent (about $750k per patent).
Now let's look at the Moto Mobility merger. Moto has 17,000 patents, with another 7000 in the pipeline, for $12.5 billion. That's about $735k a patent. Google walks away from this deal with 4x the patents, stretching back some 30 years, at a cheaper price for every single one of them.
I'm guessing it's all about patents. If so, I wonder why someone else didn't snatch them up? In the webcast, they ignored the question re: if there was competitive bidding.
I think I should make a fantasy video game where evil empires snatch up magical dohickies that control basic behaviors and make it a commentary on the patent system.
Even if you didn't use the phone, why would you turn down a free one?
The only way to get the free one, is to activate it on another line and renew the 2 year contract.
It would have used my 2 year upgrade. And I didn't want to use it yet for that phone. So I passed it on to my mom.
@Thrax
I didn't see that yet, but that's gonna make my brother real happy. But that's ok. After playing with his phone, I like it, but I didn't think it was worthy of my 2 year upgrade. The resolution is nice, but I don't really like the qHD pentile display. It looks pixelated. And the Detroit area is 4G now, so I think I want to go 4G when I upgrade.
We agree. The DX2 is a nice phone, but not worth getting locked into for 2 years, especially not 20 days from the Galaxy S II, and 30-60 days from the next-gen dual core phones. PenTile also sucks.
The only way to get the free one, is to activate it on another line and renew the 2 year contract.
It would have used my 2 year upgrade. And I didn't want to use it yet for that phone.
Ah, makes sense, and what Tuesday said about the upcoming phones.
We agree. The DX2 is a nice phone, but not worth getting locked into for 2 years, especially not 20 days from the Galaxy S II, and 30-60 days from the next-gen dual core phones. PenTile also sucks.
Yea, those were my thoughts exactly.
Is Verizon getting the Galaxy S II?
Also the rumors about the HTC Vigor got me wanting to wait too.
Everyone but T-Mobile appears to be getting the SGS2. T-Mo appears to be getting a weird variant called the Samsung Hercules, which has a .2" larger screen and a different CPU.
Vigor is one of those "30-60 days away" phones, and it should be nice.
the_technocrat
IC-MotY1Indy Icrontian
Comments
If, however, Google screws with the chain of command by planning and releasing a Google DroidX or something, then it's shit in the soup and bad news all around. Never compete against your manufacturers. I think Google knows this, though.
Google successfully raised the price on the Nortel patent auction to $4.5 billion for 6000 patents. Apple and Microsoft wanted to pay substantially less, and everyone was wringing their hands about the inflated value of a patent (about $750k per patent).
Now let's look at the Moto Mobility merger. Moto has 17,000 patents, with another 7000 in the pipeline, for $12.5 billion. That's about $735k a patent. Google walks away from this deal with 4x the patents, stretching back some 30 years, at a cheaper price for every single one of them.
The Nortel auction suddenly seems trivial.
I think I should make a fantasy video game where evil empires snatch up magical dohickies that control basic behaviors and make it a commentary on the patent system.
But maybe they won't lock the bootloader on future Moto androids...
I had a chance to take a free X2 (Buy one get one free, my brother bought one), but I opted out solely because its bootloader is locked.
The only way to get the free one, is to activate it on another line and renew the 2 year contract.
It would have used my 2 year upgrade. And I didn't want to use it yet for that phone. So I passed it on to my mom.
@Thrax
I didn't see that yet, but that's gonna make my brother real happy. But that's ok. After playing with his phone, I like it, but I didn't think it was worthy of my 2 year upgrade. The resolution is nice, but I don't really like the qHD pentile display. It looks pixelated. And the Detroit area is 4G now, so I think I want to go 4G when I upgrade.
Ah, makes sense, and what Tuesday said about the upcoming phones.
Yea, those were my thoughts exactly.
Is Verizon getting the Galaxy S II?
Also the rumors about the HTC Vigor got me wanting to wait too.
Vigor is one of those "30-60 days away" phones, and it should be nice.