Slashdot Mirror
Google Finalizes Acquisition of Motorola Mobility
zacharye writes with news of the end of the regulatory saga that was Google acquiring Motorola Mobility. From the article: "In line with earlier reports, Google on Tuesday finalized its acquisition of Motorola Mobility. The $12.5 billion merger was approved by regulators in China on Monday after having been given the green light by the United States Department of Justice this past February. Chinese regulators did stipulate terms for its approval, however, namely that Google must continue to make Android open-source and freely available. Former Motorola Mobility CEO Sanjay Jha has stepped down and Google's Dennis Woodside will replace him as chief executive..."
The biggest thing I've been hoping for with the Google/Motorola merger is that Google could offer a method to unlock bootloaders on newer Motorola phones, such as the Atrix 2, Photon, or others.
I'm just hoping this comes to pass now that all the big names have signed onto this.
... is that the superb Motorola cell phone radios get implemented in the Google phones. I live in a rural area and although I really like both the iPhone and the Samsung android phones, I rely almost exclusively on my Motorola Defy.
The reception and voice quality is incredibly better than any other cell phone I have used (and that is a lot). I have never experienced a dropped call with it and it always connects unless there is absolutely no signal.
Sigh
I still think "Motorola Mobility" sounds more like a company that makes scooters for disabled people than mobile phones.
MS has the X-Box
you know that box that sold tens of millions of units and you can watch cable TV on it, youtube, movies and lots of other services? most people still watch this stuff on a TV, not a phone or tablet
They would like to be able to sell their product in China.
Apple is becoming applier than ever
Orange is getting sweeter and juicier.
Banana is getting a bigger bunch
Goodbye Pear...
(seriously, this is how stupid you sound)
I actually was wondering if the "Nexus Line" announcement from a week or two ago had anything to do with Motorola's acquisition (if you didn't catch it, basically every manufacture will have the option to make their own Nexus phone that follows Google's design specs and have it sold through the Google Play Store). By not allowing just one manufacture a year to take a crack at the Nexus, Google could reduce the amount of finger pointing at them if Motorola phones start getting quick OS upgrade releases. I know Google promised to run Motorola like a completely separate company, but I wouldn't be surprised if the corporate plan for Motorola goes more in line with a unified Android approach.
Vol~
Bootloader unlocks on phones wont happen so long as carriers like AT&T, Verizon, Rogers, Telstra etc etc etc wont sell such unlocked phones (or in some cases wont even allow them on their network)
I don't think Microsoft is going to be a player in any market anymore. It appears that their only trick is to shove windows onto small platforms where its not needed. Unless you have an xbox (which is hard to haul around with you), they don't have much in the way of a viable full platform set with apps and music and books. Lets face it, Bing/xbox live/whatever they're calling it these days sucks.
Yet another reason to stay with dumb computer monitors.
Give me inputs and leave your all-in-one-box crap out of my displays, thanks.
Those numbers will change in a year. Apple is spending a shit ton of money for ramping up manufacturing equipment, forecast for $7B this year. What other company has ever spent that much just on mfg equipment? One obvious reason is growth in China.
http://www.asymco.com/2012/05/22/up-to-eleven/
There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
While it's partially true that the industry standard pushed hard against the proprietary systems, that's no entirely true. Some of it was simply that the established proprietary system companies didn't try hard enough. It seems that color, video, and animation took Apple by surprise on the Mac.. they were offering what, the Apple ][ GS for that market? And they're the one that survived... only barely, and mostly because Steve Jobs came along and converted them into a high profit luxury CE company, not a personal computer company anymore (Macs are about 18% of Apple's business, and falling every quarter).
Commodore and the Amiga blazed that multimedia trail, with once revolutionary hardware and the best overall OS in the personal computer business at the time. But the bosses paid themselves more than the CEOs of Apple and IBM... combined, and spent way too little on R&D, despite Commodore at the time being more tied to custom chip development (eg, spending lots of money) than any of the others. Commodore couldn't remain competitive that way, but it was really more of a suicide than our being overrun by IBM compatibles.
Atari's management (the ex-Commodore Tramiels) didn't understand the difference between a late 80s/early 90s computer that needed real ongoing OS development at upgrades, and the Commodore 64 era of the OS basically being part of the hardware. Wang was already pretty much of it by then... they didn't really transition well from dedicated word processing gear to general purpose PCs. Rat Shack when totally IBM compatible, and eventually just didn't see any profit in making their own. Sinclair only put their toe into the 16-bit world anyway, with the very restricted QL, and hit enough trouble in 1985 to sell all their personal computer assets to Amstrad. DEC pretty much missed the idea that personal computers would grow more powerful than minicomputers faster than minis could keep up.
-Dave Haynie
Isn't Motorola Mobility the biggest maker of Cable TV boxes?