Google bought Motorola for $12.5 billion a little over two years ago, but the big question is why did Google buy this struggling company? It’s been common knowledge that Google has expressed distaste for Samsung heavily skinning Android, and changing the overall experience. I thought Google may use Motorola as a nuclear option for making their own handsets if the partnership with Samsung turned sour quickly. However, Google has yet to really produce anything with Motorola, insisting on their is a 18 month pipeline already in place.
Lenovo, which does not have a mobile presence in the united states could rep the benefits of this purchase. The China Daily reports, Lenovo will only pay $3 billion for the company. this will be a 7 billion dollar lost for Google. Motorola had recently cut their set top box unit to Arris for nearly $2 billion, but Motorola has been bleeding over a billion dollars a year. Google may have bought Motorola to protect Android from Apple with the Motorola patents. However, over the past year its become clear that Motorola’s patents are not worth as much as Google first thought, which could mean bad news for Android in the near future.
Either way Google has yet to show anything for this huge purchase, and left many people wonder exactly what Google was thinking. The rumours had an X Phone, which would be designed by Google and built by Motorola. If the company is sold today, the rumors are saying Lenovo is making an announcement today, everyone could see stock prices swing for Google and Lenovo.
The big fear is that Lenovo will take plays from Samsung and attempt to heavily skin Android to their liking. Motorola has kept the Moto X and Moto G unskinned for the most part, and used small apps to add features to Android. This and the low prices of the phones has been a big hit among tech enthusiasts. We could see a new skin for Android soon, and maybe Samsung will fork Android just like Amazon did with the Kindle. Whatever happens Google has a long battle to keep Android the way it wants to.
The big question is why did Google buy Motorola in the first place, and we want a clear answer. What do you think about Lenovo purchasing Motorola from Google? Tell us in the comments below!
(update)
It’s been confirmed that Lenovo bought Motorola for $2.91 billion. This means no X Phone, and we could see Motorola phones get new skins.