Oct 01 2011
Not-so-Smart Move?
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In the young and bustling smartphone business, Google’s Android operating system is currently the strongest competitor to Apple’s iPhonesOS. Last month, Google announced that it intends to acquire Motorola – it will now dabble with hardware as well as software development.
Google’s, a software producer’s, move to the hardware market made it a competitor to its partner hardware producers for the Android system. Three days ago, Microsoft and Samsung Electronics reached an agreement which allows the two companies to share their patent portfolios. Samsung is the second-largest smartphone producer behind Apple and is also the developer of the Nexus S, the official Google phone.
From the current state, Google’s decision to acquire Motorola does not look like smart move on its part. While the financial details of the agreement are not released, the deal is more significant as a demonstration of an alliance and partnership. Microsoft is a powerful software company and wants to enter the smartphone market, and now one of Google’s most powerful partners is signing a deal that could give Microsoft the chance. The agreement presents Google with two very obvious threats: losing market share to Microsoft and losing the relationship with its hardware producer partners.
Reference news article: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/story/2011-09-28/microsoft-samsung-smartphone-partnership/50589412/1
One Response to “Not-so-Smart Move?”
Interesting! Microsoft is doing the same hard/soft partnership with Nokia intending to replace Nokia’s outdated Symbian OS with Windows 8. In my opinion Microsoft is signing into a more profitable relationship.