Google Is Buying Motorola Mobility

Now, this isn’t strictly speaking iPhone news, but this will have a major, major influence on the smartphone market, so we figured it was worth covering.

That’s right folks, Google is href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/supercharging-android-google-to-acquire.html">buying out Motorola Mobility. For href="http://www.marketwatch.com/story/google-to-acquire-motorola-mobility-2011-08-15?reflink=MW_news_stmp">$12.5 billion the search engine giant is taking over the sometimes-troubled handset manufacturer behind the flagship Droid line of phones.

Google has promised that it will run Motorola as a separate business from Android, keeping the OS open to all.

So, what does any of this mean? Hopefully that stock Android will now be the only Android installed on Motorola devices. It also means that if Google has any brains, they’ll do what Apple does and make a smartphone that is high quality, well designed, and retains its value.

What this also means is that Google is picking up a huge bucket of patents to continue their ongoing patent wars with.