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EU and US Approve Google-Motorola Deal
angry tapir writes "European regulators have given Google the green light to take over Motorola Mobility. The U.S. $12.5 billion deal faced strong opposition from open source and consumer rights advocates, including Consumer Watchdog, but the European Commission announced on Monday that the acquisition could go ahead, without conditions."
Later in the day the DOJ announced an end to its investigation, greenlighting the acquisition in the U.S. as well.
Hopefully this will give Apple and Microsoft reason to pause for thought on its lawsuits against the Android ecosystem.
I'm getting tired of reading about a new assault every week; 17,000 patents should even things out enough to force the big players to negotiate and co-operate (assuming of course that Apple won't try to continue the Jobs dream of killing competition entirely...).
Also, I'll love seeing any hardware to come out of this.
Yes, because its rational for you to passionately love one company (an ad network)
I stopped reading after "ad network" because someone who describes Google as such is either biased against Google or for Apple, which makes your comment no more rational than the first post.
lucm, indeed.
They're by no means perfect, but when compared to other companies their size Google does proportionately less evil.
I'm hoping their search engine finds the "nuclear" patent holed up somewhere in Motorola's recently acquired portfolio that allows them to put an end to the other companies sue everyone else wars between Apple, Samsung and every other manufacturer out there. The "one patent to trump them all" wielded by Google that could put everyone else in a hurt locker unless they calm down and agree to play nice would be a dream and allow honest development and competition to resume.
I'm dreaming I know. I would like wielding of patents as a weapon to go away, but hopefully a big one in the rights hands could fix some issues.
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Apple isn't "an electronics maker". They design electronics, buy a lot of Samsung components and have poor Chinese people work 18 hours a day to assemble them.
Importers and purveyors of Chinese electronics seems like a good description to me.
The iPhone is a good phone, so are a few Android phones.
The fanbois show their true colours when they cannot accept any other phone or brand is as good as theirs.
They also do when they go on and on and on about how crap all the other phones are and how wonderful theirs is.
Reality, as always, is usually smack down the middle.
"If you can persuade your customer to tattoo your name on their chest, they probably will not switch brands."
-- An Indiana University professor on Harley Davidson owners
And with Motorola Mobility it seems Google gets a nice little patent war chest. I can't wait until they sue Apple out of existence to be honest.
I think this move by google is an excellent one from a business perspective because they did indeed buy Moto Mobility for the patents and this will now allow them to have real leverage and ownership of key patents that are used on mobile telephony.
It will also ensure that android continues to be actively developed.
People need to start treating these companies a bit more fairly, a lot is a stake and the more competition there is, the more innovation there is and the better (i.e. lower) prices we pay as consumers.
IMHO if apple had their way, everyone would have an iphone, ipad, imac, itunes account, icloud storage and apple undies to go with it. That would lead to them winding back on innovation and leave us with no other choices....a very boring world to live in. They would also charge way more for their over prices products then they do as is in that scenario.
Lets also be honest here and admit that apple does not play real fair at the manufacturing/patent levels with other companies, competitors and also how they handle production by way of out sourcing it. IN fact they royally screw us over on pricing here in Australia so I am all for anything that forces them to give us the end user a fairer deal and better value for our hard earned dollars.
Now before anyone says i am anti this or that, I have an apple macbook pro and I also use MS products extensively in my role at work. After 15yrs in the industry i care more for things being fit for purpose then i do for brand names so save me the flame.
peace.
With Google standing behind Motorola and Microsoft standing behind Nokia...
Interesting analogy. Please allow me to extend it a little, if you will. "Google standing behind Motorola, owning it, and Microsoft standing behind Nokia with a garrot around its skinny corporate neck..."
Have you got your LWN subscription yet?
How is THAT insightful mods, seriously? MSFT may have other revenue but the majority comes from Windows and Office so it would be logical to call them an OS and Office software company, yes? Apple gets most of its money from consumer devices so they can be called a consumer devices company, following?
Show me where Google makes more than a tiny pittance on ANYTHING bsides ads, lets hear it. Not android because they are product dumping that to the tune of a billion bucks in development a year, not ChromeOS, again they are dumping it gratis, Chrome? nope, hmmm...how are they able to dump billions in software for absolutely no money? Are they making the money from rainbows and puppy farts?
That would be ADS paying those billions PLUS billions in revenues AND profits friend. You can gussy it up all you want, pretend it don't exist all you please, but if you shut down Google's ad business they would be gone in less than a year. Now what would that make Google, could it be, oh I don't know...an AD company perhaps?
Seriously I don't know when all the damned corporate cheerleading started but when someone gets a +4 just for going "Nuh uh, you must be teh shill for not loving teh googles!" this place is getting seriously fucked up. its a fucking company okay, do you wear Google PJs too? Its like the old Mel Brooks bit "All go to hell except cave 76!" because its nothing but pointless flag waving and perception bubbles all around. None of the above companies are your pal, none of them frankly give a flying fuck about you okay? And if any of the big three could see their profits go up by 15% by throwing you in a cage with a horny silverback you'd be getting gorilla loving before you could say "Do no evil!". so just cut the crap okay? We're supposed to be geeks not sheep.
As for TFA I don't if this could be considered a good thing or a bad thing for Google. Google obviously thinks its a good thing but what company is gonna want to use Android on a phone if they have to compete with the OS developer's phone? While this will give Google an Apple style solution, with the ability to integrate hardware and software nicely which looks to be the way the other guys are gonna all do it, MSFT and Nokia, Apple making their own, and now Google with Motorola, what company is gonna want to run android when it will be inferior to the Google Phone? On a positive note maybe this will breathe new life into WebOS as all the OEMs left out in the cold by this deal can simply customize it to their hardware and like Android is gratis.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.