Google Buys Motorola, Why & What it Means!

Photo Credit: mashable.com

Today Google made a shocking announcement that took most of the tech world by surprise. They posted on their official blog that they have agreed to acquire Motorola, a company that has been manufacturing mobile hardware for quite some time. I know that my very first cell phone in 1999 was a Motorola device, and I’m also certain that my first pager was also Motorola. Yes, I had a pager in high school in 1995, and no I wasn’t a drug dealer (back then there was a stigma that if you had a pager you were a drug dealer).

This acquisition, while somewhat surprising on the surface, makes a lot of sense for Google. Not only is it their latest move in taking over the world, but it was done mainly to protect it’s Android operating system. Being a newcomer to the mobile world (as Apple, Microsoft and Palm have been in the game for quite some time) they had a serious deficiency in the way of patents. From the official Google Blog…

We recently explained how companies including Microsoft and Apple are banding together in anti-competitive patent attacks on Android. The U.S. Department of Justice had to intervene in the results of one recent patent auction to “protect competition and innovation in the open source software community” and it is currently looking into the results of the Nortel auction. Our acquisition of Motorola will increase competition by strengthening Google’s patent portfolio, which will enable us to better protect Android from anti-competitive threats from Microsoft, Apple and other companies.

I have heard around the net that companies like HTC may be getting nervous about what this means for them. With such a strong relationship with hardware, it would be safe to assume that Motorola devices will get the first round of updates, and have better integration with the operating system all together.

Some people are saying that this may push Microsoft to purchase a hardware manufacturer as well, such as Nokia (which it has recently partnered with) or HTC. I’d be in favor of an HTC merger, as I’m in love with HTC phones and have recently grown fond of the Windows Phone 7 operating system. Just don’t put out anything like the Kin, ever again, mmmkay Microsoft?

Do you think this is more about Google trying to protect the Android OS, or about Google taking over the world? Do you think Microsoft will follow suit and purchase a hardware manufacturer as well?