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back to article Explaining the Chocolate Factory's Patent Panic

Debate rages on about whether Google's acquisition of Motorola Mobility is good for Android, or an expensive mistake for Google, made in a moment of irrational panic. Our columnist Matt Asay thinks it "spells iPhone doom", and he's not alone. John C Dvorak thinks it's "pure genius". This supposes that Google performed a cost- …

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    1. Curtis
      Reply Icon
      Joke

      Starcraft?

      would that be like a Zergling Rush?

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  2. moonoi
    Facepalm

    Its about the set top box business

    and the failure of Google TV, the mobile phone and patent stuff is just a red herring, just you wait and see.

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    1. soaklord
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      Titleist

      This is EXACTLY what I was thinking when I saw that they got the set top box business. This allows them to integrate with millions of set top boxes and gives them an in with all the cable companies out there, thus a new advertising venue.

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  3. Kevin Hutchinson
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    Where's the beef?

    There's no real information in this story - just a lot of opinion about the way patent litigation might play out. The most important things are: 1) does Motorola Mobility hold any "platinum" patents that are broad in scope? 2) is this going to help or hinder the other Android phone makers? If Google uses Motorola as a patent shield for Android then it helps the ecosystem for Samsung, HTC, LG, Sony, etc...

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  4. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    Motorola Patents

    If they were so valuable and could be levegaged against Apple, Nokia et. al. (and, considering in the early days of GSM phones Motorola were a leader I don't dispute it) why on earth haven't Motorola been trying to sue these rich companies to date ?

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    1. KjetilS
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      FAIL

      Re: Motorola Patents

      Because *some* companies prefer to compete on products instead of misusing the legal system to kill all competitors.

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  5. Handle This

    Re: Oh put a sock on it @ 22:39 GMT

    I disagree. Given the author and subject matter, I have just skipped the articles and dove right into the comments. You would rob me of many minutes of pleasure.

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  6. Graham Lerant
    FAIL

    The article is based on flawed logic

    What if Google didn't just want patents but acquired Motorola to manufacturer some phones! Is this so implausible?

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    1. TeeCee Gold badge
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      Re: The article is based on flawed logic

      Now that makes sense.

      Motorola make some great Android phones, let down by one major cockup. Update cycles, or rather the lack of them.

      They're stuck in the same rut as most of the other manufacturers, believing that slathering the core OS with their own cruft (Motoblur? I'm looking at you...) to "differentiate" it is the only way to compete. The sticking point here is that porting said cruft to a new OS version for a device that's been superseded or is coming to the end of its cycle is money down the drain[1], so it doesn't get done.

      A Motorola that ditches the cruft development overhead (reducing cost and time to market) and ships updates on the dot (keeping customers happy and possibly drumming up some repeat business) might actually make money.....

      [1] Other industries seem to place a value on customer satisfaction and do this sort of thing anyway.....

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  7. Yves Kurisaki
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    Right..

    So the writer of this article thinks he knows better than billions worth of top brains.

    I think I'm going to place my bet on Google.

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  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Mining for gold amongst the claims

    Assuming at least 3 dependent claims per patent gives you over 64k claims to examine for gold amongst the dross. It would be very interesting to see how Google applies their search wizardry to this.

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  9. TeeCee Gold badge
    WTF?

    One more thing.

    ISTR that when Android was in gestation, potential OEMs were wary of being crushed by a "Googlephone", but were reassured by Google saying; "We'll never make phones".

    Subsequently there was a right old hoohah when the first Nexus shipped, but Google assured everyone that it was Ok, 'cos it wasn't *made* by them. Grumbling persisted in the background to the effect that Google weren't exactly playing fair in annointing one OEM's products with Google branding, but everything carried on.

    I assume the deathly silence so far on the Motorola buyout from the other Android phone makers is 'cos they haven't got over the coughing fit from choking on their cornflakes yet?

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