Google Acquires Motorola Mobility to 'Supercharge' Android

Image via CrunchBase

August is normally a slow news month, but not today. Google announced Monday that it will acquire Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion in order to "supercharge" its Android mobile operating system and build up its patent portfolio.

In a blog post championing the acquisition, Google chief Larry Page insisted the acquisition will not change Google's commitment to keeping Android open. "We will run Motorola as a separate business," he wrote. "Many hardware partners have contributed to Android’s success and we look forward to continuing to work with all of them to deliver outstanding user experiences."

Andy Rubin, senior vice president of mobile at Google, echoed those sentiments. "We expect that this combination will enable us to break new ground for the Android ecosystem. However, our vision for Android is unchanged and Google remains firmly committed to Android as an open platform and a vibrant open source community," Rubin said in a statement. "We will continue to work with all of our valued Android partners to develop and distribute innovative Android-powered devices."

Perhaps more important to Google's bottom line will be the acquisition of Motorola Mobility's patent portfolio. "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," Page wrote.

Earlier this month, Google accused Apple, Microsoft, and other tech giants of trying to "strangle" Android with its coordinated patent purchases and pledged to "intensely" defend its mobile OS through patent purchases of its own and opposition to what it considers anti-competitive patent bids.

Last month, a consortium of tech rivals purchased 6,000 wireless technology patents held by Nortel, which Google had said it wanted to buy. Apple, EMC, Ericsson, Microsoft, Research in Motion, and Sony joined forces to purchase the patents, which cover wireless, wireless  4G, data networking, optical, voice, Internet, service provider,  semiconductors, and other patent portfolios. Microsoft and Apple also teamed up to purchase patents from Novell, along with Oracle and EMC.

Page said Motorola's 2008 decision to "bet big" and make Android the sole operating system across all of its smartphone devices "is one of many reasons that there is a natural fit between our two companies."

"We believe that their mobile business is on an upward trajectory and poised for explosive growth," Page wrote. "The combination of Google and Motorola will not only supercharge Android, but will also enhance competition and offer consumers accelerating innovation, greater choice, and wonderful user experiences."

"We have shared a productive partnership with Google to advance the Android platform, and now through this combination we will be able to do even more to innovate and deliver outstanding mobility solutions across our mobile devices and home businesses," said Sanjay Jha, CEO of Motorola Mobility.

Google said it hopes to close the deal by the end of 2011 or early 2012, pending regulatory approval.

Stay tuned for more details.

Android market share topples Blackberry

It was only a matter of time, not a matter of if, Google's Android operating system would become the dominate mobile platform. That time is now.

According to the very latest data from Nielsen, Android now commands a 29% market share of smartphone users in the US. While that isn't even close to being a majority, it is a plurality that topples all of its competitors.
Meanwhile, Blackberry has fallen to 27% and Apple's iOS platform remains largely flat at 27% as well, where it has seemed to comfortably sit for a while.

Bringing up the read was Windows Phone 7 at 10%, Palm OS at 4%, and Nokia's antiquated Symbian with 2%, thanks only to people who have legacy Nokia phones as there are no current Symbian smartphones on the market in the US.

This is a cataclysmic event, as it brings Android ahead of a platform that for years was the leading smartphone software. Blackberry's operating system became so ubiquitous with business that it seemed impossible to ever dethrone it from the top spot in overall market share. After all, companies would buy Blackberry phones in bulk, sometimes hundreds or even thousands at a time.

No one really expected enterprise customers to start switching over, en masse, to the new consumer platforms of Android and iOS, but that's exactly what it happening. Blackberry had managed to hold onto its #1 title for a while, but that was only because it had such a commanding lead. The company behind Blackberry, Research in Motion, has been sloughing off market share for over a year. In just the past 12 months it has dropped double-digit market share thanks mostly to Android. The iPhone hasn't really advanced much, but it isn't falling either.

Apple still has a pretty nice lead in the tablet market, though that may change as 2011 gets into full swing and a number of anticipated Android tablets hit store shelves.

source : tgdaily.com

Android market share continues to increase

33.3 million units in Q4

According to the latest figures from Canalys, Android phones are the new black.

In Q4 2010 one in three mobile phones shipped with Google's OS and the trend is still positive. Of course, all this comes at a price for the competition, mainly Nokia. Android phones accounted for 32.9 percent of the market, while Nokia trailed with 30.6 percent. Apple ranked third with a 16 percent share, while RIM snatched 14.4 percent of the market.

It appears that Windows Phone 7 did not manage to do much for Microsoft's numbers and Windows-based smartphones account for just 3.1 of the market.The strongly contested smartphone market is in for even more turmoil in 2011, with the advent of faster dual-core processors, new operating systems and a host of other features.

source :fudzilla.com

iPhone Flat in U.S. as Android Takes Market Share Lead

This week, the latest U.S. smartphone market share report from comScore has little good news for Apple, except possibly that things could be worse. For the three-month period ending in January, the iPhone was flat at 24.7 percent, up just 0.01 percent from October. In sharp contrast, Android surged 7.7 percent during the same period, ending at 31.5 percent, and taking the number-one spot previously held by RIM. The Canadian smartphone maker tumbled 5.4 percent, down to 30.4 percent share, and will almost certainly be passed by Apple during the first half of this year. Windows Phone 7 was unable to halt Microsoft’s slide, down from 9.7 to 8.0 percent, while HP’s webOS fell from 3.9 to 3.2 percent.

Last week, Nielsen released market share data for smartphones that saw Google edge out Apple and RIM in the U.S. From December to January, Android was up from 27 to 29 percent, while iOS on the iPhone dipped from 28 to 27 percent, and RIM was flat at 27 percent. While that wasn’t great news for Apple, it at least showed iOS keeping pace with Android, which the comScore report seems not to indicate.

Looking back at 2010, the rise of Google’s smartphone OS is simply amazing. Last January, Android was at just 7.1 percent according to comScore. The question now becomes whether Apple can stop Google from achieving a majority, if not a super-majority, of smartphones sold in the highly lucrative U.S. market in 2011, and avoid becoming a niche player. To do so, Apple needs to address to address two major issues with the iPhone business model: distribution and price.

In 2009, the Motorola Droid was launched on the Verizon network, beginning Android’s rapid growth. One can only imagine what might have happened had there been a Verizon iPhone available at the time. In 2011, Apple has finally rectified that mistake. Expect the next report from comScore to show the impact of Verizon’s 90 million potential iPhone buyers.

As for price, the LG Optimus V running Android is now available in the U.S. on Virgin Mobile for $149 without a contract, and that’s just the beginning for low-priced Android smartphones, but Apple may be prepared this time. An article from Forbes highlights a meeting between Bernstein Research analyst Toni Sacconaghi and Apple COO Tim Cook that offers some hope. According to Sacconaghi, Cook “appeared to reaffirm the notion that Apple is likely to develop lower priced offerings,” that Apple is “not ceding any market,” and that company does not want its products to be “just for the rich.”

Aggressive pricing on the iPad is evidence of that, and were the iPad, and the iPod touch, counted in mobile platform totals, the market share numbers would look very different. If Apple transitions the iPhone to a similar business model of wider distribution and lower price points, Android’s world conquest might yet be halted.

source :gigaom.com