Android and Me

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Google’s acquisition of Motorola receives approval in China with one big stipulation Posted: 20 May 2012 12:50 PM PDT Just a little over three months after Google got the green light from the US Department of Justice and the European Commission they have finally received the blessing of Chinese regulators to acquire Motorola Mobility. Google did have to agree to one fairly major stipulation in the process however — Android must remain freely available to other manufacturers for the next five years. Now it seems likely that this is exactly what Google has in mind anyway, but this should assuage any lingering doubts for other manufacturers. According to WSJs sources the purchase could be finalized within the week. What, if anything, we will see happen once the deal goes through has been a bit of a mystery ever since we first heard of the planned buyout over nine months ago. There’s been no shortage of rumor and news surrounding Motorola’s future with a shake-up at CEO, a potential sale to Huawei, a complete firewall between the two companies and now a potential US importation ban in the coming months. The only seeming guarantee is that it is unlikely to be a boring year where Motorola is concerned. We’ve asked you before, but now that we are in the home stretch for this purchase it feels like it’s an appropriate time to ask again. What do you think Google should be doing with Motorola? Should they be a full-time Nexus manufacturer? Should Google allow them to continue as a separate entity? Should Google allow them to continue as a separate entity but insist that Blur and any otherwise named permutation of it be killed off? (I’m only slightly kidding.)

Motorola devices could face US importation ban following ITC ruling on Microsoft patent Posted: 20 May 2012 12:48 PM PDT Hot on the heels of US customs imposing an International Trade Commission ban on select HTC devices we have yet another exclusion order from the ITC, but this time around it’s Microsoft winning their patent claim against Motorola. The patent in question dates back to 1998 and relates to scheduling a meeting with a group using a mobile device and having that event sync across mobile devices and PCs. As with many of these claims this sounds like fairly ridiculous feature to be able to patent, but the key is always in the exact implementation of the feature so it’s possible that Motorola will be able to come up with another way of handling the function (that is the tactic HTC employed in their case). As you may recall from the HTC ruling this exclusion order doesn’t have any immediate ramifications for consumers as first the order goes to President Obama, who has 60 days to overturn the ruling should he so desire. My understanding is that the likelihood of this is just slightly higher than the next iPhone running Jelly Bean. Motorola also indicated that they may seek to appeal the ruling which would further delay an actual ban being put in place. For Motorola the immediate repercussions are that they must pay Microsoft 33 cents per device during the 60 day review period with the President. A per device licensing fee is one of the potential resolutions to this matter and likely the option that Microsoft would prefer considering they are already pulling in licensing fees from the majority of Android manufacturers. With Google finally receiving the necessary approval in China for the Motorola acquisition there may well be a different legal team at the helm for this matter by the time the 60 day review period is up — whether that will result in a different strategy going forward is anyone’s guess at the moment, but we’ll be keeping a careful eye on this one as the summer progresses.

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