Google to sell Motorola to Lenovo, say reports

Damn. They lost a lot...

Only selling it for $3 billion when they bought it for $12.5 billion?

 

Patents. (probably not 9.5 billion's worth of patents, but that's why they bought it initially)

I'm sure Lenovo will get some of the lesser ones.

 

^^^ yep. goog blog post indicated they were keeping the vast majority of patents.

 

Wow. That was a disaster.

 

Will be entertaining to watch the spin around this.

 

Would love to sit in on a meeting between Google execs to hear their short term and long term vision for the company.

 

Jews sold US out to the Chinese again!!!

 

They also had a prior divestiture for ~$2.3B. Still looks like they took a large loss on this though.

 

Patents only last 14 years. So for for 14 years of patents they paid 12.5-3-2.5 = $7 Billion dollars.

 

Perhaps not coincidently, Google and Samsung will be hugging each other a lot more closely going forward. I wonder if there are implications for Samsung's commitment to Tizen. (Google and Samsung signed a 10-year patent deal a couple of days ago too http://techcrunch.com/2014/01/26/sa...ndroid-hatchet-sign-10-year-patent-agreement/).

http://recode.net/2014/01/29/after-...will-dial-back-android-tweaks-homegrown-apps/

After Google Pressure, Samsung Will Dial Back Android Tweaks, Homegrown Apps
January 29, 2014, 10:50 AM PST
By Liz Gannes
By Ina Fried

In early January, while the rest of the consumer technology world at CES marveled at the sheer size of Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy tablet, Google execs were dismayed by what they saw on the screen of the massive 12.1-inch slate — a fancy new user interface called Magazine UX.

As Re/code’s Bonnie Cha wrote at the time: “The Magazine UX looks like a mix of Flipboard and Microsoft’s Metro user interface with its dynamic dashboard and app shortcuts.” In other words, the interface was a dramatic departure from Google’s vision for Android.

Multiple sources familiar with the companies’ thinking say the two technology giants began hammering out a series of broad agreements at CES that would bring Samsung’s view of Android in line with Google’s own. The results of the talks, which have only just begun dribbling out to the public, also underscore the extent to which Google is exerting more of its influence to control its destiny in the Android open source world.

An agreement with Samsung comes as Google is facing a rise in Android devices that don’t use its services, especially in China. A new report from ABI research finds 25 percent of Android devices shipped in the fourth quarter did not have Google’s suite of services installed.

Google and Samsung representatives declined to comment on the discussions. Samsung added, “To continue our momentum of delivering great user experiences and bringing greater value to people’s lives, Samsung will continue to identify and provide differentiated and innovative service and content offerings on our mobile devices.”

This week, Samsung and Google announced a wide-ranging deal to cross-license patents that cover mobile devices and other undisclosed categories. But there’s more.

Although the exact details of those meetings could not yet be learned, sources familiar with the discussions say not only will Samsung consider dumping or altering the Magazine UX interface in future devices, but, more importantly, new Samsung devices will spotlight Google’s suite of apps to get movies, music and other content at the expense of its in-house-developed software, which was once a proud showcase of Samsung’s evolution as a mobile industry leader.

It’s unclear what concessions Google may have made on its part. The company could have, for example, agreed to work with Samsung on a Nexus device or offered other cooperation.

The relationship between Google and Samsung has gone through “a huge change, a sea change in the last few weeks,” as one source described it.

Sea Change
Samsung is by far the largest Android device maker and controlled 32 percent of the global smartphone market in the third quarter of 2013, according to Gartner. Some 82 percent of the smartphone market operated on Android software. Samsung has maintained a delicate codependency with Google. Many in the industry have been studying the tea leaves for signs that the two are heading in opposite directions, especially after Google’s purchase of Motorola, a rival handset maker.

Putting more emphasis on preloaded Google Play apps is clearly a concession for Samsung, which had been beefing up its media services efforts through its Samsung Media Solution Center group. Over the past two years, that group built out movie and TV offerings and acquired mobile music service mSpot.

Samsung’s WatchON software is a mirroring and remote control app that ties into existing content services like Netflix and works best for people who have multiple Samsung devices, including a TV. Another app in the Samsung bunch is ChatON. It’s a cross-platform messaging app that can work on non-Samsung Android devices as well as iPhones. Sources were unsure if ChatON would be included in the apps getting the ax.

But Samsung’s apps were largely forgettable in the wider Android community and moving to Google Play apps is not seen as a major loss.

In his Galaxy S4 review, Re/code’s Walt Mossberg wrote, “I found Samsung’s software often gimmicky, duplicative of standard Android apps, or, in some cases, only intermittently functional.”

GoogleFlex
As the biggest Android app maker, Google has significantly stepped up its effort to get device makers to adopt its suite of services, separate from and in addition to the core Android operating system.

In recent months, an increasing amount of the innovation in the Android ecosystem coming from Google has landed not in the open-source operating system but in Google’s proprietary Google Play services and its suite of apps. While seeing the benefits of keeping Android open source, this allows Google to ensure that some of its work is only used on devices that use its services as opposed to, say, the Kindle Fire, which uses the Android operating system but taps Amazon’s services.

The Google Play apps are also made available to device makers, but under tighter conditions. Google no longer allows handset makers to pick and choose just one app to include on their phones, but wants them to include the whole shebang.

As one mobile executive who competes with Google’s Android apps put it, “Google is really following the Apple playbook. It may be open source underneath, but not on top.”

The fact that Apple wields such tight control over its own software-and-hardware combo seems to be the only thing separating Google from the M-word and competition scrutiny, considering its large and growing market share. But that’s changing. Another app maker called Google’s recent bundling moves reminiscent of the monopolistic heyday of Microsoft. “They’re treading on very thin ice,” he said.

What’s Worse Than Fragmentation?
In fact, Google now makes 78 of its own Android apps, and in some cases pre-installs more than a dozen of them as a package deal on new phones.

This is especially significant because the Google apps bind tightly together. Google has apps for pretty much all the most important functions on a phone or tablet — email, messaging, maps, storage, browsing, reading the news, finding and consuming media — and they are interlocked so that tasks flow naturally from one app to the next.

Users generally welcome that kind of consistency across software — just ask an iPhone user — and Google sees this as an opportunity to improve the quality of the Android community that has been plagued by fragmentation. However, it’s an awful lot of Google. It means Android is becoming more like an uber-Google experience than an underlying operating system topped with a selection of apps.

It could also be bad news for independent app makers. Samsung has given tremendous exposure to independent apps and services like Dropbox, Flipboard, SwiftKey and TripAdvisor by bundling and pre-installing them onto its devices. While it was a small group of beneficiaries, Samsung could be less likely to cut deals to bundle more apps in the future, especially in cases where Google makes a competing app.

Without a strong advocate like Samsung, with all its market power and leverage, the barrier to success for smaller developers on the Android platform will be higher in this new era.

 

Apparently, with tax rebates and divestitures, the total price of the initial purchase was $1.5 billion:

So I guess when it comes down to it, after an operating loss of ~$1.038B and the initial $1.5B, they might have come out ahead and still retained "the vast majority of Motorola’s patents" and the Advanced Technology and Projects division of Motorola (Project Ara).

 

So you're saying we could have a motorola phone running windows phone 8.1? Wow.

 

A rumor regarding Samsung and Google. Not sure if it's a big deal if true.

http://www.omgchrome.com/samsung-stop-making-windows-laptops/

Samsung Reportedly Dropping Windows In Favour of Chromebooks

BY JOEY-ELIJAH SNEDDON UNDER NEWS, RUMOURS TUESDAY

Samsung will halt production of Windows notebooks in 2015 to focus entirely on Chromebooks, a new report has claimed.

Sources close to the Asia-based industry site Digitimes, and within the supply chain serving the South Korean electronics giant, are reporting that Samsung “will no longer launch conventional notebook models except Chromebooks” from 2015.

‘Samsung will no longer launch conventional notebook models except Chromebooks…’
The company has long been a supporter of Google’s thin-client cloud-based OS, launching one of the first Chromebooks back in 2011. A refreshed version of their best-selling ‘Samsung Chromebook’ is rumoured to arrive near easter, utilising an eight-core ARM processor.

Digitimes’ information is best taken with a liberal pinch of a sodium-based seasoning. While they have enviable access to many key players in the electronics supply chains around Asia, not everything they choose to relay turns out to be accurate.

‘Does it really makes sense to back Chrome OS exclusively?’
With that said, the report does give a potential reasoning for such a switch.

Samsung expected to ship 17 million notebooks in 2013 but only managed to shift 12 million. As a result, insiders say the company has lowered its notebook forecasts for 2014 to 7 million units – a drop of nearly 50%. on the previous year.

Shipment math aside, does it really makes sense for them to back Chrome OS exclusively?

Having enjoyed runaway success with their titular “Samsung Chromebook” in 2012, it’s unlikely that such thoughts haven’t crossed their minds.

And with Windows 8 expected to send PC sales into ‘free fall‘ this year, it could be a gamble that pays off.

 

Not really? They bought Motorola for the patents. They're keeping the patents. Motorola also now produces products more in-line with Google's vision (Moto X and G), but now Google doesn't have to baby them and can go back to innovating Android.

Net $9 billion may seem expensive for some patents, but the potential losses in licensing and/or litigation could easily be more than that.

 

There's no guarantee that Lenovo has to continue anything Google was doing with that product line. In addition, Motorola phones now may go back to the carrier tying issues that being a part of Google helped to alleviate. Depends on how Lenovo will 'break into' the smartphone market.

There's also no indication that anything meaningful was done (or had been prevented) with those patents.