The Deal Between Google and Motorola – End to The Open Source Android Platform?
With the acquisition of Motorola Mobility Google gains control over one of the world’s largest mobile device manufacturers and hence takes its investment in the mobile to the next level. Meg Whitman, CEO of Hewlett-Packard, has shared with her HP partners that the deal between Google and Motorola will transform the Android operating system from an open source platform to a closed one, such as iOS source model. This is in full contrast to the webOS open source platform. Hewlett-Packard had bought the webOS platform but a while after launching their first webOS tablet, the company decided to stop working on webOS devices and to make the webOS an open source platform. According to Meg Whitman there is a place for another big mobile platform. In her opinion the HP decision to transform webOS in an open source platform will take effect in three to four years.
The deal between Google and Motorola has caused certain oppression for lots of people. It is almost impossible to completely remove the perception of favoritism. If Google puts Motorola before the other mobile manufacturers ( such as HTC, Samsung, etc.), the company risks to alienate these manufacturers. HTC, Samsung, LG, etc. will all be asking themselves ‘how can we compete with Motorola which will likely have that in house access to every release of Android before us?’ And hence there is a real risk that they might turn to another mobile platform that can be used on their devices. The Android platform already has several problems, caused by numerous cases raised against it for breaking different types of licences. And this is just one of the many questions surrounding the acquisition. Will Google get into the business of manufacturing? And how will this affect its relationship with its Android partners? What will be the reaction of Microsoft and Apple?
It is going to take months until the question whether Google's biggest acquisition ever was a smart move gets its answer. What is your opinion about it?