5 ms·

Motorola had another suitor: Microsoft

62 points by fpgeek 15y ago

recoiledsnake 15y ago
I don't think Microsoft is or ever was seriously interested in buying a hardware OEM. After all, they stayed away from PC OEMS even when their market capitalization was north of $500 billion. When asked why don't they make their own Windows Phone(with WP7) instead of relying on OEMs for it, their reply was 'Microsoft likes to create platforms'. This is the reason that they will probably stay away from Nokia. I think their one exception is consoles, where they went with the industry standard of vertically integrated hardware.
- hnhg 15y ago
  They did provide Windows CE for the Dreamcast though, before the Xbox. EDIT: Some more background here: http://news.cnet.com/Windows-CE-notably-absent-from-Dreamcast-launch/2100-1001_3-218224.html http://news.cnet.com/Windows-CE-notably-absent-from-Dreamcas...
- potatolicious 15y ago
  I do think MS would benefit from vertical integration in the mobile space though. If there's one consistent pattern to OS platforms (MSFT or otherwise) is that you can expect your OEMs to completely manhandle and abuse it. It happened to Windows, it's happening now to Android, and without Nokia around to whip the other OEMs into line, it will happen with WP7 also. Is it any surprise that the most sought after phones have all been vertically integrated? There's a level of hardware-software integration and polish possible there that OEM-based platforms have yet to be able to approach.
  - recoiledsnake 15y ago
    >If there's one consistent pattern to OS platforms (MSFT or otherwise) is that you can expect your OEMs to completely manhandle and abuse it. It's not easy to manhandle and abuse WP7. No one can preinstall running services and non-uninstallable(!) apps like on Android. All OEMS/carriers get is a longer tile on the homescreen that can be removed/uninstalled with a long press. There are strict minimum hardware requirements. I think MS learnt the lesson from the PCs. >Is it any surprise that the most sought after phones have all been vertically integrated? Care to back that up? The only recent example is iPhone. RIM and WebOS are either slow or going down. The counter examples are Android which seem to be doing VERY well and displacing iPhone/Symbian/RIM as the top dog.
    - tzs 15y ago
      What Android phone has been among the "most sought after phones"? From all the reports I've seen, no particular Android phone is sought after they way iPhone is currently sought after, or the way Blackberry was once sought after.
      - CrazedGeek 15y ago
        The Droid (aka Milestone) and Evo 4G were both pretty sought-after.
        potatolicious 15y ago
        I disagree - we're talking about at least an order of magnitude difference in "sought after". The Droid, Evo 4G, and now the Galaxy 2 are all highly sought after phones... in the smartphone enthusiast community. Which at the end of the day is just a subset of the "gadget/tech enthusiast" community, which is a tiny subset even then of the greater population. The cachet and demand of the Evo 4G to, say, the iPhone, or BlackBerry during its heyday, are completely different.
        recoiledsnake 15y ago
        From where are you getting your numbers? http://blog.flurry.com/bid/31410/Day-74-Sales-Apple-iPhone-vs-Google-Nexus-One-vs-Motorola-Droid http://blog.flurry.com/bid/31410/Day-74-Sales-Apple-iPhone-v... The phones you listed have HUGE worldwide demand. While it may not eclipse iPhone because it's one device, they're nothing to sneeze at, and the demand goes way beyond geeks. Is there some place where you're getting your hard data? http://gadgetizor.com/samsung-galaxy-s-2010-sales-figures-10-million/6400/ http://gadgetizor.com/samsung-galaxy-s-2010-sales-figures-10... http://www.slashgear.com/samsung-galaxy-s-ii-passes-5m-sales-worldwide-27167632/ http://www.slashgear.com/samsung-galaxy-s-ii-passes-5m-sales...
        metachris 15y ago
        The Samsung Galaxy S was and is a highly sought after device too. To a lesser extent also the Nexus S.
- cma 15y ago
  >I think their one exception is consoles Uhh, Zune? And it's particularly relevant given the ipod/iphone transition path.
  - Kadrith 15y ago
    I also find it relevant that they started with a platform approach for Zune, then changed it to be vertically integrated. Why would they not consider the same for phones if they could buy MOTO and use them to bootstrap verticle integration?
bergie 15y ago
Had Microsoft bought Motorola, Nokia would've been in some interesting times...
lucasjake 15y ago
It is interesting the level of poker these tech firms are starting to play with each other. We don't see these announcements playing out the way they would have in the gogo 90's, but the magnitude of these deals are equal or bigger, and have more meaning in the long term than what we saw in the last tech boom.
VladRussian 15y ago
so Motorola bluffed young Google CEO into the deal by threatening to sell to MSFT? Looks like there was some value in having Schmidt as the CEO.
- orangecat 15y ago
  Not a bluff. Microsoft would gladly have paid billions to increase their ability to extort fees from Android manufacturers, or shut them down altogether like Apple is trying to do.
  - Kadrith 15y ago
    Or to prevent Google from acquiring MOTO's patents and potentially remove the second largest Android manufacturer.
  - VladRussian 15y ago
    >Microsoft would gladly have paid billions even following your logic and supposing that buying MOTO would have helped MSFT achieve these goals - they still haven't paid the billions, or do you suggest that there was a bidding war (and a young cool player just overbid them ? :)
    - nkassis 15y ago
      Haven't seen numbers for what Microsoft was willing to pay. How do you know they overbid?
Athtar 15y ago
According to this report: http://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-was-interested-in-motorola-too-2011-8 http://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-was-interested-in-m..., Microsoft was not interested in buying Motorola. Instead, they were (supposedly) close to settling their patent dispute with Motorola, and signing a cross-licensing deal giving them access to Motorola's patents.
- fpgeek 15y ago
  If Microsoft was settling their patent dispute with Motorola and looking at a cross-licensing agreement, that is all the more reason for Google to buy them. Either Google gets a cross-licensing deal and gets the protection they want for the Android ecosystem (at least from Microsoft) or Google winds up with a patent portfolio that Microsoft has already decided is dangerous.

62 points by fpgeek 15y ago

I don't think Microsoft is or ever was seriously interested in buying a hardware OEM. After all, they stayed away from PC OEMS even when their market capitalization was north of $500 billion. When asked why don't they make their own Windows Phone(with WP7) instead of relying on OEMs for it, their reply was 'Microsoft likes to create platforms'. This is the reason that they will probably stay away from Nokia. I think their one exception is consoles, where they went with the industry standard of vertically integrated hardware.

hnhg 15y ago
They did provide Windows CE for the Dreamcast though, before the Xbox. EDIT: Some more background here: http://news.cnet.com/Windows-CE-notably-absent-from-Dreamcast-launch/2100-1001_3-218224.html http://news.cnet.com/Windows-CE-notably-absent-from-Dreamcas...
potatolicious 15y ago
I do think MS would benefit from vertical integration in the mobile space though. If there's one consistent pattern to OS platforms (MSFT or otherwise) is that you can expect your OEMs to completely manhandle and abuse it. It happened to Windows, it's happening now to Android, and without Nokia around to whip the other OEMs into line, it will happen with WP7 also. Is it any surprise that the most sought after phones have all been vertically integrated? There's a level of hardware-software integration and polish possible there that OEM-based platforms have yet to be able to approach.
- recoiledsnake 15y ago
  >If there's one consistent pattern to OS platforms (MSFT or otherwise) is that you can expect your OEMs to completely manhandle and abuse it. It's not easy to manhandle and abuse WP7. No one can preinstall running services and non-uninstallable(!) apps like on Android. All OEMS/carriers get is a longer tile on the homescreen that can be removed/uninstalled with a long press. There are strict minimum hardware requirements. I think MS learnt the lesson from the PCs. >Is it any surprise that the most sought after phones have all been vertically integrated? Care to back that up? The only recent example is iPhone. RIM and WebOS are either slow or going down. The counter examples are Android which seem to be doing VERY well and displacing iPhone/Symbian/RIM as the top dog.
  - tzs 15y ago
    What Android phone has been among the "most sought after phones"? From all the reports I've seen, no particular Android phone is sought after they way iPhone is currently sought after, or the way Blackberry was once sought after.
    - CrazedGeek 15y ago
      The Droid (aka Milestone) and Evo 4G were both pretty sought-after.
      - potatolicious 15y ago
        I disagree - we're talking about at least an order of magnitude difference in "sought after". The Droid, Evo 4G, and now the Galaxy 2 are all highly sought after phones... in the smartphone enthusiast community. Which at the end of the day is just a subset of the "gadget/tech enthusiast" community, which is a tiny subset even then of the greater population. The cachet and demand of the Evo 4G to, say, the iPhone, or BlackBerry during its heyday, are completely different.
        recoiledsnake 15y ago
        From where are you getting your numbers? http://blog.flurry.com/bid/31410/Day-74-Sales-Apple-iPhone-vs-Google-Nexus-One-vs-Motorola-Droid http://blog.flurry.com/bid/31410/Day-74-Sales-Apple-iPhone-v... The phones you listed have HUGE worldwide demand. While it may not eclipse iPhone because it's one device, they're nothing to sneeze at, and the demand goes way beyond geeks. Is there some place where you're getting your hard data? http://gadgetizor.com/samsung-galaxy-s-2010-sales-figures-10-million/6400/ http://gadgetizor.com/samsung-galaxy-s-2010-sales-figures-10... http://www.slashgear.com/samsung-galaxy-s-ii-passes-5m-sales-worldwide-27167632/ http://www.slashgear.com/samsung-galaxy-s-ii-passes-5m-sales...
      - metachris 15y ago
        The Samsung Galaxy S was and is a highly sought after device too. To a lesser extent also the Nexus S.
cma 15y ago
>I think their one exception is consoles Uhh, Zune? And it's particularly relevant given the ipod/iphone transition path.
- Kadrith 15y ago
  I also find it relevant that they started with a platform approach for Zune, then changed it to be vertically integrated. Why would they not consider the same for phones if they could buy MOTO and use them to bootstrap verticle integration?

bergie 15y ago

Had Microsoft bought Motorola, Nokia would've been in some interesting times...

lucasjake 15y ago

It is interesting the level of poker these tech firms are starting to play with each other. We don't see these announcements playing out the way they would have in the gogo 90's, but the magnitude of these deals are equal or bigger, and have more meaning in the long term than what we saw in the last tech boom.

VladRussian 15y ago

so Motorola bluffed young Google CEO into the deal by threatening to sell to MSFT? Looks like there was some value in having Schmidt as the CEO.

orangecat 15y ago
Not a bluff. Microsoft would gladly have paid billions to increase their ability to extort fees from Android manufacturers, or shut them down altogether like Apple is trying to do.
- Kadrith 15y ago
  Or to prevent Google from acquiring MOTO's patents and potentially remove the second largest Android manufacturer.
- VladRussian 15y ago
  >Microsoft would gladly have paid billions even following your logic and supposing that buying MOTO would have helped MSFT achieve these goals - they still haven't paid the billions, or do you suggest that there was a bidding war (and a young cool player just overbid them ? :)
  - nkassis 15y ago
    Haven't seen numbers for what Microsoft was willing to pay. How do you know they overbid?

Athtar 15y ago

According to this report: http://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-was-interested-in-motorola-too-2011-8 http://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-was-interested-in-m..., Microsoft was not interested in buying Motorola. Instead, they were (supposedly) close to settling their patent dispute with Motorola, and signing a cross-licensing deal giving them access to Motorola's patents.

fpgeek 15y ago
If Microsoft was settling their patent dispute with Motorola and looking at a cross-licensing agreement, that is all the more reason for Google to buy them. Either Google gets a cross-licensing deal and gets the protection they want for the Android ecosystem (at least from Microsoft) or Google winds up with a patent portfolio that Microsoft has already decided is dangerous.