@AndroidBasha's Blog: Motorola

Showing posts with label Motorola. Show all posts

Nov 6, 2012

A federal judge on Monday tossed out an Apple lawsuit accusing Google-owned Motorola Mobility of trying to charge the iPhone maker too much for licenses to essential technology for mobile devices.

US judge tosses Apple suit against Motorola

By: Unknown on: Tuesday, November 06, 2012

Sep 6, 2012

Motorola and Verizon held an event in New York City yesterday and announced several new phones in the DROID RAZR line. From kevlar to NFC chips to beautiful displays to awesome battery life, they’ve got everything Android fans will love. Bringing some more good news with their announcements, Motorola went on to say that most of their 2011 phones will be upgraded to Jelly Bean and those that won’t be, customers will get a $100 credit to a future purchase.

Meet The New Motorola Droid Razr Family !

By: Unknown on: Thursday, September 06, 2012

Aug 20, 2012

Apple maybe riding on a wave of unprecedented pre-release interest in their next-generation iPhone that is due to be announced next month, but it isn’t all sunshine and happiness for the Cupertino-based technology giants. Although the next few weeks represents an extremely exciting time for Apple and all those who are involved in the iPhone project, legal representatives of the company are still locked in an ongoing patent battle with Samsung with proceedings set to come to an end at some point next week.

Although Apple has presented evidence that points out three different loss of sales scenarios that is seeing them claim up to $2.8 billion in damages from Samsung, there is by no means any guarantee that the judge or jury will see the situation from their point of view, meaning it is in no way the foregone conclusion that some people seem to think it is. As if Tim Cook and his team didn’t have enough to worry about, Google-owned Motorola Mobility have let it be known that they are less than happy with some of Apple’s products and want to contest their validity in court.

To show that they are serious about their patent infringement claims, Motorola Mobility has filed a new complaint with the United States International Trade Commission. This isn’t the first time Motorola has attempted to have some shackles slapped onto Apple’s extremely popular iOS devices with an earlier attempt this year being thrown out before they even got started. Something has obviously changed in the Mobility ranks considering they have a new found confidence in their case that they claim sees no less than seven of its owned patents being infringed upon.

We don’t have any official word from Apple about this latest attempt to drag them through the courts, but Motorola is claiming that attempted talks with Apple to work out some kind of license agreement for their innovations have failed, leaving them with no other option but to pursue this legal avenue. The case focuses on Apple’s major mobile devices like the iPod touch, iPad and iPhone as well as their range of Macs will reportedly be brought into question whether or not technologies like Siri and location-based reminders are entirely Apple’s own work.

Not a great deal more information is available at present and we will know more as it progresses and we actually see some kind of retort from the fruit company, but with Motorola attempting to get some kind of import ban on the iPhone, it is certainly a headache that Apple could do without.

(via Bloomberg)

Forget Apple Vs. Samsung, Motorola Wants Import Ban On iPhone, iPad And iPod touch

By: Unknown on: Monday, August 20, 2012

Aug 14, 2012

Now that Google owns Motorola most people assume Motorola will get preferential treatment from the Android team.

Leading up to the close of the Google-Motorola deal, Google steadfastly denied this would happen. It insisted it would keep Motorola removed from the Android team. This sounded like it was just talk to keep regulators and partners happy.

Turns out it might be more than just talk. Buried in the New York Times is this little nugget of information: "A Motorola Mobility executive who recently left the company and would speak only on the condition of anonymity because he was uncomfortable talking to the news media, said that if anything, it had become more difficult than before for Motorola to have impromptu collaboration with the Android team."

This makes some sense. Previously, Motorola could talk to Android and no one would raise a fuss since Motorola was just another company like any other. Now, if Motorola is talking to Android and it gets out, people would freak out.

This could just be part of the early-going between the two companies. Right now, Google is probably on edge about the new deal. It doesn't make sense to infuriate Samsung, its biggest partner by helping Motorola which is still a tiny player in the smartphone world... Over time, things could change.

And, on that front, the New York Times mentions that Motorola can hire Google software engineers. It also mentions Motorola might build its own special flavor of Android: "And, people familiar with the companies say, Google could decide to follow Apple’s lead and build a phone from silicon to software, perhaps by creating a separate operating system for Motorola that other phone makers cannot use. "

If Google were to do that, watch out. It would put Google in a very weird, very awkward position with its partners.

Ex-Motorola Employee: It's Actually Harder For Motorola To Work With Android Now

By: Unknown on: Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Aug 13, 2012

A few months ago Google finally closed the deal on its acquisition of Motorola Mobility, replacing the old CEO with its own handpicked successor. Now the company is expediting its plans to consolidate Motorola. In the latest report, the search giant is getting ready to do some major restructuring, which will result in a 20 percent cut (about 4,000 people) of the handset maker’s workforce. This isn’t so much of a surprise as many executives had already hit the exit once the deal was done.

The way this job reduction will playout is Motorola’s operations in Asia and India, as well as its R&D spending in Chicago, Sunnyvale, and Beijing — is getting a drastic cut. Google’s goal is to trim down the fat on such a bloated company; a company that could only turn a profit six months out of the last four years. What makes sense is for Google to stop putting wasted resources into producing lower-end handsets, which is a plan the company intends to carry out. New Motorola boss, Dennis Woodside, told the The New York Times that he’s refocusing the company to concentrate on “a few cellphones instead of dozens.” Again, this isn’t new, we already had an idea that Motorola would refocus and begin to release lesser phones, which is something the old CEO Sanjay Jha uttered earlier this year.

In becoming a much leaner company, Motorola will begin to put more emphasis on things like voice recognition that can determine who is in a room, better cameras, and longer-lasting batteries. All great qualities phone owners love. The NYT report also mentioned how an executive close to situation believed it would be “more difficult” for Google and Motorola to spontaneously collaborate on Android projects.

This irks me, because it makes no sense. Why is it a problem for Google to do its own thing, with its own OS, on its own hardware company? My point is, every single OEM the search giant “partners-up with” has been doing whatever it wants with Android since day one (like throwing crappy skins on top of it). So why would things all of a sudden become “more difficult” with Google’s acquisition of Motorola? OEMs will continue to do whatever they want regardless.

[NYT; via The Verge]

Google to give 20 percent of Motorola's employees pink slips

By: Unknown on: Monday, August 13, 2012

May 25, 2012

Google CEO Larry Page has just announced that the company has at last completed its acquisition of Motorola Mobility, which has been in the works for around 9 months now. Originally announced in August of last year, Google had plenty of regulatory approval hurdles in its way before it could finalize the move; but with the approval of the acquisition coming from China a few days ago, the company was finally able to seal the deal. Motorola Mobility has now been acquired by Google for $12.5 billion, meaning that the company paid $40 per share.

So, now that the deal has been closed, what’s happening now? Well, effective immediately, Motorola Mobility is no longer trading on the NYSE. Sanjay Jha – credited by Page as someone who made a big bet on Android early on – has stepped down, with Google employee Dennis Woodside taking over as the new CEO. Page praised his work at Google, stating that he had worked throughout the Middle East, Africa, Eastern Europe, and Russia to expand Google’s business there. He also more recently helped to grow revenue in the U.S. from $10.8 billion to $17.5 billion.

Now, I wonder what’s in store for the company in the coming months and years, though; there have been rumors of post-acquisition layoffs, as Google trims down the company down to something that it would like to work with.

They certainly seem pretty enthusiastic about the acquisition, with Page remarking back in August that this move will help to supercharge the Android ecosystem (reassuring everyone, however, that this doesn’t mean that Google will stop working with other Android hardware manufacturers.) But what was the point of shelling out $12.5 billion to acquire a mobile hardware manufacturer for a platform that Google licenses out to everyone anyways? Considering that Google has been a victim of patent wars fought by Apple and Microsoft, the company did state that they wanted Motorola Mobility’s established repository of patents to defend Android against litigation from competitors’ “anti-competitive” litigation.

Thus, Google felt that this acquisition was actually a pro-competitive move to help defend its platform against all of the recent litigation. Google’s relationship with Motorola Mobility moving forward versus that with other manufacturers should be interesting to see as well, on top of what public perception of that relationship will be. Microsoft and Nokia are two very close companies, and some already regard them as the best manufacturer to go with when it comes to Windows Phone partially for that reason.