August 15, 2011MotoGoo, Motoogle, or Googola -- a big deal any way you slice it
Google just bought Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion. Cringe isn't sure the Googlers will know what to do with it
Follow @ifw_cringelyAnd I thought August was going to be a slow news month. That just changed, thanks to Google and its blockbuster $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobile.
All I can say is wow. Game on for real this time, Apple. See ya later, RIM. Helloooo, Microsoft? Can you hear me down there? Don't worry, we'll send some pods down to rescue you ... eventually.
[ Also on InfoWorld: Neil McAllister asks whether Google's best days are in the past. | For a humorous take on the tech industry's shenanigans, subscribe to Robert X. Cringely's Notes from the Underground newsletter and follow Cringely on Twitter. ]
As for HTC, Samsung, and LG: Hey, you had some good times with Android, but you knew it was never meant to last. Right?
This is an epic day for more than just business reasons. Motorola is one of a handful of companies responsible for creating the industry that pays my mortgage, and I don't mean blogging. And its history with cellphones is equally storied.
Until the iPhone came along, Motorola pretty much defined mobile phones, starting with the original DynaTAC in 1983, the first flip phone (the StarTac), and the first looks-so-cool-I-must-have-it fashion phone (the Razr). Then came the ill-fated Rokr and a long sojourn in the handset desert, followed by a recent comeback, thanks in large part to a a series of snazzy -- and some not so snazzy -- Android phones.
Sadly, I have one of the less snazzy ones: the Motorola Cliq, which is underpowered and overburdened with a godawful Blur "social interface" that does nothing but drain battery life and annoy me. I blame T-Mobile, not Motorola, for this monstrosity. Short of Google also buying a mobile carrier (like Sprint, which seems to be standing in the corner waiting for somebody to ask it to dance), I'm not sure GooMoto would be able to do anything to fix that.
More than mobile phones, though, this is really about tablets. Motorola Mobility makes the Xoom, the first tab to run Android 3.0 and still the worthiest contender to the iPad's throne. Google wants to get into the PC 3.0 business in a big way and figures it might as well own the whole schmear.
Googola...! Blockbuster deal and blockbuster implications as Cringe puts it "Game on"!
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