10 ms·

Remember when google bought Motorola and we thought the moto x line was going to become the new nexus? And then they sold to lenovo and it's kind of been down h

Remember when google bought Motorola and we thought the moto x line was going to become the new nexus? And then they sold to lenovo and it's kind of been down hill in terms of software updates. Let's see what google extracts out of HTC and then sells to someone else with this company.

TCM 9y ago
I think you must not of heard that once they sold the company to Lenovo they still kept the Patents. Most likely they will do the same. See https://techcrunch.com/2014/01/29/google-keeps-vast-majority-of-motorola-mobility-patents-in-sale-to-lenovo/ https://techcrunch.com/2014/01/29/google-keeps-vast-majority...
- ensignavenger 9y ago
  "Let's see what google extracts out of HTC" Patents and/or other assets may have been exactly what they were referring to.
- Nokinside 9y ago
  Same what Nokia did with smartphones. They sold remaining phone manufacturing and marketing to Microsoft but kept all patents, Nokia Research and even the Nokia brand. Smartphone market is in the state of business where manufacturing, R&D and brand marketing can be separated and mixed freely. Especially in the Android ecosystem.
rplnt 9y ago
> it's kind of been down hill in terms of software updates I don't think this is accurate. Even phones that were released during Google's ownership didn't receive any updates (during Google's ownership or after). It seems like Google never intended to own it, they just scraped it for people and patents.
ajross 9y ago
To be fair: HTC is already a manufacturer for Google-designed hardware, which Motorola never was. I've said it before that this acquisition is best understood in terms of vertical integration than technology. If Google believes the future Pixel line (and similar devices) are going to make decent money, then buying HTC makes sense even if they don't change the working relationship between the employees at all.
- Fej 9y ago
  Motorola made the Nexus 6 (although it really was more of a Motorola phone than a Google phone).
notatoad 9y ago
The rumour at the time was that Google fully intended to enter the hardware business. they wanted to keep Motorola forever and didn't just buy them for patents, but Samsung threw a hissy fit and threatened to drop android entirely if Google was going to compete with them directly. Moto was sold as part of a deal with samsung (samsung intro'd a tablet with a very microsoft-y UI shortly before google sold motorola, and after the sale the software was re-done to be much closer to stock android) Presumably, with the Pixel line going head-to-head with the Galaxy S last year the situation has changed enough that Google no longer fears that Samsung will ditch Android. It's also worth noting that the rumour here is that Google will buy specific manufacturing and hardware assets from HTC, but will not buy the brand. So it's less of a "buying the company and keeping the parts they want" situation, and more of a "buy only the parts they want" situation.
- tooltalk 9y ago
  Not sure if that's the case. Samsung was always developing Android and Windows based mobile devices -- though Android was selling in much larger quantity. Both Moto and HTC were/are way past their prime and I personally think Google should just let it die and pick up distressed assets at bargain price when it goes belly up. It'd be also interesting if Samsung would drop Android altogether and starts using MS mobile OS.
  - usrusr 9y ago
    > just let it die and pick up distressed assets at bargain price when it goes belly up. Doing that would mean that all the experience that could have been part of the deal will already be gone.
  - endemic 9y ago
    Samsung also has their own OS, Tizen, which seems like a hedge against Google. I'd be curious to know what it would take for them to pull the trigger and make it the default OS in the Galaxy line.
- katastic 9y ago
  Yeah. I've got plenty of criticism for Google. But not this. Google isn't in the business of "trading" businesses to flip them for profit. It's a 100x more plausible that they went in with optimism, and got snagged by something unanticipated. And what's more unanticipated yet powerful, than not a law, but a competitor with deep political and financial leverage in your company's markets? Those kind of power plays happen all the time in the advertiser and entertainment world.
spitfire 9y ago
Wait, when did Google become a private equity firm? I'm liking tech less and less.
- hodder 9y ago
  When they changed there name and announced the intention of becoming a multifaceted holding co.
- peteretep 9y ago
  Alphabet
- Apocryphon 9y ago
  Worse than just PE, they're also a lobbying group as well. https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/firmsum.php?id=D000022008&year=2017 https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/firmsum.php?id=D000022008&... https://www.recode.net/2017/7/21/16008504/apple-amazon-google-record-lobby-trump-immigration-science-privacy https://www.recode.net/2017/7/21/16008504/apple-amazon-googl... https://www.cheatsheet.com/business/10-companies-likely-to-bankroll-2016-presidential-campaigns.html/?a=viewall https://www.cheatsheet.com/business/10-companies-likely-to-b...
Ajedi32 9y ago
The whole reason Google bought Motorola in the first place was for the patents. They even said as much in [their blog post announcing the acquisition][1]: > We recently explained how companies including Microsoft and Apple are banding together in anti-competitive patent attacks on Android. The U.S. Department of Justice had to intervene in the results of one recent patent auction to “protect competition and innovation in the open source software community” and it is currently looking into the results of the Nortel auction. 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. They also were very careful to explain that they were _not_ buying Motorola in order to get into the hardware business: > This acquisition will not change our commitment to run Android as an open platform. Motorola will remain a licensee of Android and Android will remain open. We will run Motorola as a separate business. 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. I doubt Google's reasons for acquiring HTC are the same in this case. If in fact this time they _are_ planning to use HTC to get into the hardware business (and that seems likely, given their efforts with the Pixel line recently) you should expect them to handle this acquisition in a completely different way from how they handled Motorola. [1]: https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/supercharging-android-google-to-acquire.html https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/supercharging-androi...
throwayit 9y ago
Yes! As a former Googler, Google has a terrible track record with hardware companies: Motorola, Nest, Dropcam, Boston Dynamics, etc. I don't see this as going anywhere.
- dEnigma 9y ago
  Dropbox? Was there a hardware company of the same name?
  - throwayit 9y ago
    Big typo! I meant Dropcam, which was doing extremely well before it joined Google and then had a lot of issues with its integration with Nest.
- vthallam 9y ago
  >Dropbox You might want to correct it as Dropcam. For a moment, I was like when did this happen :)
- hjnilsson 9y ago
  Why do you think it is Google struggles so with Hardware companies, as a former Googler?
  - kilroy123 9y ago
    I'm not a Googler, but my guess is, it's just not in their company DNA. They are and always have been a software company.
    - askvictor 9y ago
      *service company
ac29 9y ago
>Remember when google bought Motorola and we thought the moto x line was going to become the new nexus? Interestingly Google announced today that the Moto X4 will be the first Android One phone in the US [0], and it has Nexus like pricing ($399). Looks like it may be a Google Fi exclusive for now, though. [0]https://techcrunch.com/2017/09/20/google-brings-the-399-android-one-moto-x4-to-project-fi-and-the-u-s/ https://techcrunch.com/2017/09/20/google-brings-the-399-andr...
- m3rc 9y ago
  Can anything really be "Google-Fi exclusive"? Aren't Fi phones just phones that have radios for every US band and a Fi SIM card?
  - Nullabillity 9y ago
    It can be locked down to only accept Fi SIM cards.
    - mrbill 9y ago
      Google Fi phones will accept any SIM card, they're not locked down at all. However, the Google Fi service will only work properly with designated phones. If you stick a Fi SIM in a non-Fi unlocked phone, you only get T-Mobile service. (I've done this with a backup phone - both an iPhone 7 and a Moto E4 - when my Pixel was being RMAed)
  - drzaiusapelord 9y ago
    I just tried to order on their website. I can't buy the phone or do the nexus trade-in (a measy $100 for a 5X) unless I subscribe to the service. Not a biggie, I can do $20 for a month and cancel, but its still an annoying hoop to jump through. The phone should be unlocked for all carriers. Worse, the non-Fi X4 which may or may not sell in the states has Amazon Alexa which may be difficult or impossible to disable or make work with Google Assistant. That said, the Moto G5S is coming out soon which will have slightly better specs than the G5 Plus out today. It will be for sale at every Best Buy and phone store and will cost about the same as the X4. Not sure if there's big differentiation between the the X4 and the G5S.
godelmachine 9y ago
Bought Boston Robotics and sold to SoftBank :)

TCM 9y ago

I think you must not of heard that once they sold the company to Lenovo they still kept the Patents. Most likely they will do the same. See https://techcrunch.com/2014/01/29/google-keeps-vast-majority-of-motorola-mobility-patents-in-sale-to-lenovo/ https://techcrunch.com/2014/01/29/google-keeps-vast-majority...

ensignavenger 9y ago
"Let's see what google extracts out of HTC" Patents and/or other assets may have been exactly what they were referring to.
Nokinside 9y ago
Same what Nokia did with smartphones. They sold remaining phone manufacturing and marketing to Microsoft but kept all patents, Nokia Research and even the Nokia brand. Smartphone market is in the state of business where manufacturing, R&D and brand marketing can be separated and mixed freely. Especially in the Android ecosystem.

rplnt 9y ago

> it's kind of been down hill in terms of software updates I don't think this is accurate. Even phones that were released during Google's ownership didn't receive any updates (during Google's ownership or after). It seems like Google never intended to own it, they just scraped it for people and patents.

ajross 9y ago

To be fair: HTC is already a manufacturer for Google-designed hardware, which Motorola never was. I've said it before that this acquisition is best understood in terms of vertical integration than technology. If Google believes the future Pixel line (and similar devices) are going to make decent money, then buying HTC makes sense even if they don't change the working relationship between the employees at all.

Fej 9y ago
Motorola made the Nexus 6 (although it really was more of a Motorola phone than a Google phone).

notatoad 9y ago

The rumour at the time was that Google fully intended to enter the hardware business. they wanted to keep Motorola forever and didn't just buy them for patents, but Samsung threw a hissy fit and threatened to drop android entirely if Google was going to compete with them directly. Moto was sold as part of a deal with samsung (samsung intro'd a tablet with a very microsoft-y UI shortly before google sold motorola, and after the sale the software was re-done to be much closer to stock android) Presumably, with the Pixel line going head-to-head with the Galaxy S last year the situation has changed enough that Google no longer fears that Samsung will ditch Android. It's also worth noting that the rumour here is that Google will buy specific manufacturing and hardware assets from HTC, but will not buy the brand. So it's less of a "buying the company and keeping the parts they want" situation, and more of a "buy only the parts they want" situation.

tooltalk 9y ago
Not sure if that's the case. Samsung was always developing Android and Windows based mobile devices -- though Android was selling in much larger quantity. Both Moto and HTC were/are way past their prime and I personally think Google should just let it die and pick up distressed assets at bargain price when it goes belly up. It'd be also interesting if Samsung would drop Android altogether and starts using MS mobile OS.
- usrusr 9y ago
  > just let it die and pick up distressed assets at bargain price when it goes belly up. Doing that would mean that all the experience that could have been part of the deal will already be gone.
- endemic 9y ago
  Samsung also has their own OS, Tizen, which seems like a hedge against Google. I'd be curious to know what it would take for them to pull the trigger and make it the default OS in the Galaxy line.
katastic 9y ago
Yeah. I've got plenty of criticism for Google. But not this. Google isn't in the business of "trading" businesses to flip them for profit. It's a 100x more plausible that they went in with optimism, and got snagged by something unanticipated. And what's more unanticipated yet powerful, than not a law, but a competitor with deep political and financial leverage in your company's markets? Those kind of power plays happen all the time in the advertiser and entertainment world.

spitfire 9y ago

Wait, when did Google become a private equity firm? I'm liking tech less and less.

hodder 9y ago
When they changed there name and announced the intention of becoming a multifaceted holding co.
peteretep 9y ago
Alphabet
Apocryphon 9y ago
Worse than just PE, they're also a lobbying group as well. https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/firmsum.php?id=D000022008&year=2017 https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/firmsum.php?id=D000022008&... https://www.recode.net/2017/7/21/16008504/apple-amazon-google-record-lobby-trump-immigration-science-privacy https://www.recode.net/2017/7/21/16008504/apple-amazon-googl... https://www.cheatsheet.com/business/10-companies-likely-to-bankroll-2016-presidential-campaigns.html/?a=viewall https://www.cheatsheet.com/business/10-companies-likely-to-b...

Ajedi32 9y ago

The whole reason Google bought Motorola in the first place was for the patents. They even said as much in [their blog post announcing the acquisition][1]: > We recently explained how companies including Microsoft and Apple are banding together in anti-competitive patent attacks on Android. The U.S. Department of Justice had to intervene in the results of one recent patent auction to “protect competition and innovation in the open source software community” and it is currently looking into the results of the Nortel auction. 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. They also were very careful to explain that they were _not_ buying Motorola in order to get into the hardware business: > This acquisition will not change our commitment to run Android as an open platform. Motorola will remain a licensee of Android and Android will remain open. We will run Motorola as a separate business. 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. I doubt Google's reasons for acquiring HTC are the same in this case. If in fact this time they _are_ planning to use HTC to get into the hardware business (and that seems likely, given their efforts with the Pixel line recently) you should expect them to handle this acquisition in a completely different way from how they handled Motorola. [1]: https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/supercharging-android-google-to-acquire.html https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/supercharging-androi...

throwayit 9y ago

Yes! As a former Googler, Google has a terrible track record with hardware companies: Motorola, Nest, Dropcam, Boston Dynamics, etc. I don't see this as going anywhere.

dEnigma 9y ago
Dropbox? Was there a hardware company of the same name?
- throwayit 9y ago
  Big typo! I meant Dropcam, which was doing extremely well before it joined Google and then had a lot of issues with its integration with Nest.
vthallam 9y ago
>Dropbox You might want to correct it as Dropcam. For a moment, I was like when did this happen :)
hjnilsson 9y ago
Why do you think it is Google struggles so with Hardware companies, as a former Googler?
- kilroy123 9y ago
  I'm not a Googler, but my guess is, it's just not in their company DNA. They are and always have been a software company.
  - askvictor 9y ago
    *service company

ac29 9y ago

>Remember when google bought Motorola and we thought the moto x line was going to become the new nexus? Interestingly Google announced today that the Moto X4 will be the first Android One phone in the US [0], and it has Nexus like pricing ($399). Looks like it may be a Google Fi exclusive for now, though. [0]https://techcrunch.com/2017/09/20/google-brings-the-399-android-one-moto-x4-to-project-fi-and-the-u-s/ https://techcrunch.com/2017/09/20/google-brings-the-399-andr...

m3rc 9y ago
Can anything really be "Google-Fi exclusive"? Aren't Fi phones just phones that have radios for every US band and a Fi SIM card?
- Nullabillity 9y ago
  It can be locked down to only accept Fi SIM cards.
  - mrbill 9y ago
    Google Fi phones will accept any SIM card, they're not locked down at all. However, the Google Fi service will only work properly with designated phones. If you stick a Fi SIM in a non-Fi unlocked phone, you only get T-Mobile service. (I've done this with a backup phone - both an iPhone 7 and a Moto E4 - when my Pixel was being RMAed)
- drzaiusapelord 9y ago
  I just tried to order on their website. I can't buy the phone or do the nexus trade-in (a measy $100 for a 5X) unless I subscribe to the service. Not a biggie, I can do $20 for a month and cancel, but its still an annoying hoop to jump through. The phone should be unlocked for all carriers. Worse, the non-Fi X4 which may or may not sell in the states has Amazon Alexa which may be difficult or impossible to disable or make work with Google Assistant. That said, the Moto G5S is coming out soon which will have slightly better specs than the G5 Plus out today. It will be for sale at every Best Buy and phone store and will cost about the same as the X4. Not sure if there's big differentiation between the the X4 and the G5S.

godelmachine 9y ago

Bought Boston Robotics and sold to SoftBank :)