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[fritolay]

The Google/Samsung recent deal makes more sense. There had to be something going on with the changes in this relationship.

If I worked in the US and worked for Motorola, I would hate Google right now. Yeah maybe the whole thing made business sense, but being employed or working for Motorola in the US long term is not going to be something I would want to ride out. Jump ship!

 

[tino]

Needs Dynatac, Dtartac, RAZR holy trility.

 

[Fatalah]

"Even Google couldn't figure out how to bring manufacturing back to America!"

I'm a very happy Moto X owner. I influenced 5 friends and family to buy the phone!

Today's news sucks only if Motorola stops shaking up the industry. Cheap off-contract phones FOREVER!

 

[rkn]

They're probably keeping it not because they wanted it, but because Lenovo was smart enough to not buy such an awful idea and any person who thought it was a smart idea to try to turn PhoneBloks into a real thing.

As literally the entire universe of mobile integrated chip design is working on integrating more parts on a single chip - CPU, GPU, cellular, wi-fi, bluetooth, NFC, and more - to dramatically improve performance, battery life, and reduce costs, they think it's a good idea to break them up again and undo more than a decade of progress?

Welp there goes my idea for a 4 camera phone with double wifi with no accelerometer.

 

[Junior Mint]

Needs Dynatac, Dtartac, RAZR holy trility.

V60 > razr

 

[LCfiner]

Motorola's patents are definitely not worthless. Some are essential for every phone in the US to function, and Motorola chose to never enforce their patent protection so that we can all use cellular technologies.

huh?

first, Moto DID go to court with their patents, hoping they’d be worth a lot. They took MS to court over these patents and the judge ruled them to be worth around 1.8 million. pretty much worthless. Why? Because these are standard essential patents

http://www.forbes.com/sites/timwors...orola-mobility-loses-to-microsoft-on-patents/

Their patents are not the things that separate and define unique products. they can’t be used to make cell phones prohibitively expensive to make for other companies - by law. they were never in a position to extort companies into paying ludicrous fees for these essential patents.

But they did try to enforce their patents, they tried to ask more than the courts thought was fair and they lost. The patents are essentially worthless. MS isn’t sweating over 1.8 mill in patent payments and neither is anyone else making phones.

saying that they “chose” not to use them is factually wrong and saying that the patents have a big value is also wrong since they’re SEP patents that are worth around 1/2 of a precent for devices sold that contain the inventions.

 

[lenovox1]

The Google/Samsung recent deal makes more sense. There had to be something going on with the changes in this relationship.

If I worked in the US and worked for Motorola, I would hate Google right now. Yeah maybe the whole thing made business sense, but being employed or working for Motorola in the US long term is not going to be something I would want to ride out. Jump ship!

Lenovo has only expanded in the States since their acquisition of IBM's PC business.

It depends on the type of business Motorola under Lenovo does, I'm sure, but the prospects aren't that bleak considering their last major American acquisition.

I feel like I'm in fan boy mode right now, and I'm certainly not trying to be. I was just thinking this deal shouldn't be so bad for Motorola or Lenovo in the immediate and mid-term.

 

[Goldrush]

The Moto X was the only phone in the last year that I felt actually pushed the smartphone experience forward. The spec was disappointing, but the focus on improving the UI experience when not actively using the phone was seriously enticing. The next Moto X is probably almost done and I can't wait for it. However, I'm worried that without the buffer of Google, Motorola might abandon their current direction for a me-too spec-race.

 

[numble]

Just to clarify those saying this sale is costing google 9.6 Billion, saw this post on G+ (emphasis is mine):



Nicolas Charbonnier

The tax assets should stay with Motorola, and Motorola was also responsible for 100s of million in losses (maybe totaling more) that you can see in Google's quarterly reports. Motorola's tax assets stay since they were never utilized--they never had a profit to offset (never got out of the red under Google).

 

[Orbis Tabula]

seemed the last the Moto X and G were great steps. Hopefully those lines continue as Nexus-like devices. I was actually pretty set on the successor to the X being my next phone.

Yeah, me as well. That or the Nexus, so I'm sure I'll still be covered in a year when I'm ready for a new one.

 

[Fatalah]

Android Police posted a great writeup on how disappointed Android fans are in Google. I'm so upset! There's magic in the Moto X!

 

[jamesinclair]

Not surprised.

The fact that

a) Moto phones continue to be crap*
b) Moto sales continue to bomb*

and most importantly

c) They dont even make the damned Nexus

was pretty good indication that Google dun goofed.


*Moto X is the Wii U of phones.

 

[Laieon]

That sucks. I really, really like my Moto X. Easily the most impressive smart phone on the market right now imo. It might not have the best specs, but it's features more then make up for it.

 

[Solideliquid]

Anyone else a little bummed out by the fact that Motorola, an American company was sold to the Chinese by Google?

 

[Konka]

Anyone else a little bummed out by the fact that Motorola, an American company was sold to the Chinese by Google?

It was sold to a multinational company based in China.

 

[Talon]

The Google/Samsung recent deal makes more sense. There had to be something going on with the changes in this relationship.

If I worked in the US and worked for Motorola, I would hate Google right now. Yeah maybe the whole thing made business sense, but being employed or working for Motorola in the US long term is not going to be something I would want to ride out. Jump ship!

They laid off a big chunk of their work force in Illinois when they were bought anyhow.

 

[Nesotenso]

First IBM's laptop division, then their low end server one and now motorola. It was all about that patent portfolio for Google.

 

[WillyFive]

Not surprised.

The fact that

a) Moto phones continue to be crap*
b) Moto sales continue to bomb*

and most importantly

c) They dont even make the damned Nexus

was pretty good indication that Google dun goofed.


*Moto X is the Wii U of phones.

What do you mean?

 

[cdkee]

So that's $9.5B for patents.

Don't think it's that simple.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/blogs/dea...-on-its-original-motorola-deal/?from=dealbook

 

[numble]

Don't think it's that simple.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/blogs/dea...-on-its-original-motorola-deal/?from=dealbook

These reports that keep surfacing everywhere purport to offer a thorough accounting, but I don't think it's as simple as they claim. We need to see if the tax assets carry over to Lenovo, for instance. And finally, they all forget the losses Motorola incurred while at Google. They had $353 million net loss in Q4 2013, $248 million net loss in Q3 2013, $374 million net loss in Q2, $271 million net loss in Q1, $527 million in Q3 2012, etc. Just last year, Google had to lose $1.25 billion to run Motorola at a loss. These are additional costs on top of the purchase price that Google had to pay.

 

[Polari]

Well there goes my plan to buy a Moto G.

 

[Penguins&PolarBears]

I think it's a little sad that yet another Western hardware manufacturer has bit the dust and been gobbled up by China.

The writing has been on the wall for Motorola for a very long time and now all that will remain is the brand name and patents. Man is it depressing to think about all the Western cellphone companies that are dying in recent years.

Apple and Microsoft(Nokia) are pretty much the last two Western phone makers standing now.

Don't think it's that simple.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/blogs/dea...-on-its-original-motorola-deal/?from=dealbook

These reports that keep surfacing everywhere purport to offer a thorough accounting, but I don't think it's as simple as they claim. We need to see if the tax assets carry over to Lenovo, for instance. And finally, they all forget the losses Motorola incurred while at Google. They had $353 million net loss in Q4 2013, $248 million net loss in Q3 2013, $374 million net loss in Q2, $271 million net loss in Q1, $527 million in Q3 2012, etc. Just last year, Google had to lose $1.25 billion to run Motorola at a loss. These are additional costs on top of the purchase price that Google had to pay.

Why is it that these creative accounting summaries of the Google/Moto deal always fail to remember the hundreds of millions in losses that Motorola has been racking up every quarter that Google has owned them?

Even ignoring the billions in losses Motorola has been busy creating, they paid $3.2B for a very weak patent portfolio that hasn't really protected Android successfully in any cases brought against them.

 

[lenovox1]

Well there goes my plan to buy a Moto G.

Motorola's not going to stop supporting the Moto G due to the acquisition by Lenovo.

 

[Hours Left]

So they sucked Motorola dry and now they are selling the corpse?

 

[massoluk]

Why are you people thinking Lenovo is gonna trash this phone maker....

 

[Hydrargyrus]

Those patents should worth the price...


They are selling almost only the Motorola brand and that it's not even near to the mass market appeal

 

[Bluenova]

lolololollolo

this was me.

 

[Kiraly]

Google purchase Motorola for 12.5 Billion

When Google acquired Motorola it also inherited a cash pile of $3.2 billion, as well as $2.4 billion in deferred tax assets, for a net acquisition cost of 6.9 Billion (Thanks mhender) /edit

Google sells STB business for 2.35 Billion

Google sells mobility for 2.91 Billion.

In the end, Google paid $7.24 Billion ($7,240,000,000) $1.64 Billion (1,640,000,000) for Motorola patents originally estimated at $5.5 Billion.

Rockstar Consortium (Apple, Microsoft, and others) paid $4.5 Billion for the Nortel portfolio. If we're only judging this based on the patents purchased, I wonder who got the better deal.

Hmmmm

 

[zomgbbqftw]

Some real bullshit figures around at the moment.

$12.5bn paid. For that Google got MM which included:

$3.2bn in cash
$2.4bn cash for the STB division
$2.9bn in cash, Lenovo shares and promissory notes for the handset division

In the time Google have owned MM it has lost around $2bn, not making any use of the $2.4bn DTA.

At the time of purchase, MM's patent portfolio was valued at $5-6bn. Taking everything into account, Google paid a net of $6bn for MM's patents and advanced technology research division. Since then the patents have devalued significantly after a series of courtroom losses and failures to extract higher licencing fees from competitors. Google have overpaid by a significant amount and will have to take some form of impairment.

 

[Water]

Well there goes my plan to buy a Moto G.

I don't see these news affecting the Moto G in any way. There's no reason for Lenovo to mess with it - in fact they have a good track record of not breaking what works, see Thinkpads. Besides, even if the G never got another major update, it would be a good phone and a good deal. It's already at 4.4 and perfectly usable. At the $150-200 price you can't lose - if you ever want to dump it, you'll be out $50 or $100 at most, unlike with a $600 flagship that depreciates $200 when you take it out of the box.

 

[spwolf]

This is a good move for Android eco-system... manufacturers will be pleased that Google isnt competing with them anymore.

 

[NaM]

I don't see these news affecting the Moto G in any way. There's no reason for Lenovo to mess with it - in fact they have a good track record of not breaking what works, see Thinkpads. Besides, even if the G never got another major update, it would be a good phone and a good deal. It's already at 4.4 and perfectly usable. At the $150-200 price you can't lose - if you ever want to dump it, you'll be out $50 or $100 at most, unlike with a $600 flagship that depreciates $200 when you take it out of the box.

The reason the Moto X/G were getting timely updates was because the Google guys handling it, if they stay lol) that may continue but otherwise this is not looking good (alas just like before the Google acquisition).

 

[Lion]

oh welp...I guess this means the end to get an off-contract phone for cheap (besides the nexus line). At first I was going to get a nexus 5 but later decided it was too expensive for me and for what I ideally would use the phone for. I am happy of having bought the moto-g instead. It might not be the fastest phone around but it works good enough for me. It was a good deal, I paid $150 bucks less of what would've cost me a nexus 5. I guess in 2-3 years my next phone will be a nexus 5, if the nexus line keeps getting more expensive.

Cheers.

 

[Halcyon]

Well there goes my plan to buy a Moto G.

I love my Moto G. I just put nova launcher on it and it's as snappy as anything and runs every app i've put on it with ease.

 

[Fatalah]

There's a CNET article on how to "fix" Motorola, and the first suggestion is for Lenovo to use top of the line chips, instead of underpowered like the Moto X.

The writer is oblivious to Google's recent direction for Motorola.

It's been an inspired few months since August! Battery life and usability, for a reasonable price!

 

[Water]

The reason the Moto X/G were getting timely updates was because the Google guys handling it, if they stay lol) that may continue but otherwise this is not looking good (alas just like before the Google acquisition).

Moto's strategy of keeping their Android near stock, which allows them to offer a "clean" UI and allows them to update very quickly at low cost, is a good strategy and market differentiator for Moto regardless of what Google wants. No one else on the market is doing that (unless you count the Nexus line, which is not exactly a big seller). It's the reason they were the first company in 5 years able to sell me a new-in-box smartphone. I don't see why Lenovo would mess that up; in fact I don't see why other manufacturers aren't trying to do the same with at least some phone models.

 

[WillyFive]

There's a CNET article on how to "fix" Motorola, and the first suggestion is for Lenovo to use top of the line chips, instead of underpowered like the Moto X.

The writer is oblivious to Google's recent direction for Motorola.

It's been an inspired few months since August! Battery life and usability, for a reasonable price!

He was probably talking about how to make it sell. It's true that if you put the Moto X next to the other flagships it's going to appear to be just as fast (and actually even faster) than them, but on a spec sheet it looks underpowered. You can't sell the phone to the masses that way.

 

[Fatalah]

He was probably talking about how to make it sell. It's true that if you put the Moto X next to the other flagships it's going to appear to be just as fast (and actually even faster) than them, but on a spec sheet it looks underpowered. You can't sell the phone to the masses that way.

I think that if it can work the Wii, it can work for the smart phone industry!

 

[NaM]

Moto's strategy of keeping their Android near stock, which allows them to offer a "clean" UI and allows them to update very quickly at low cost, is a good strategy and market differentiator for Moto regardless of what Google wants. No one else on the market is doing that (unless you count the Nexus line, which is not exactly a big seller). It's the reason they were the first company in 5 years able to sell me a new-in-box smartphone. I don't see why Lenovo would mess that up; in fact I don't see why other manufacturers aren't trying to do the same with at least some phone models.

This are the Google guys sent to handle Moto, like Punit and his team. I'm sure they won't stay. You can be sure that they won't update as quickly or at all once Lenovo takes over.

 

[funkystudent]

So uhh.... should I still buy a moto g to replace my nexus s?

 

[Kinitari]

So uhh.... should I still buy a moto g to replace my nexus s?

Sorry, Nexus S? You could use a shoe and it would be an upgrade. A nexus G would be a good investment if you use your phone a lot but don't want to spend hundreds.

 

[lenovox1]

So uhh.... should I still buy a moto g to replace my nexus s?

There's not much of a reason not to if you want to.

This are the Google guys sent to handle Moto, like Punit and his team. I'm sure they won't stay. You can be sure that they won't update as quickly or at all once Lenovo takes over.

The next Android update won't be until the end of the year. We also don't know the extent of the deals Lenovo and Google made. As long as the actual product continues to be supported (it will be), the prospect of maybe or maybe not getting the next incremental update to Android isn't that big of a deal if you want a $200 Android phone.

 

[Wiktor]

wouldn't surprise me if Lenovo turns out to be a passerby offering up a coat in kindness and inviting Motorola to their home, but ends up being really drunken and sexually abusive.

Doubt it. Lenovo is the best PC maker and they have been extremely good to IBM divisions they bought.

 

[Junior Mint]

I love the Moto X but I have no faith in them delivering future updates as quickly as they do now.

 

[Water]

This are the Google guys sent to handle Moto, like Punit and his team. I'm sure they won't stay. You can be sure that they won't update as quickly or at all once Lenovo takes over.

Why wouldn't they keep updating, when it's one of their strongest selling points, and they can do it cheaper and faster than anyone else?

Moto is in the unique position of using a near-stock Android and offering only a few select phone models. Fast updates are a natural way of taking advantage of that.

 

[DietRob]

Man, the future of Motorola Mobility under Google seemed so promising... very sad news :-(

Yea I'm pretty disappointed I felt real good about buying into the moto x since it was as close as I could get to a 'Google made phone' I know about the nexus line of course. I've always loved the build quality of every moto phone I've owned and hope this move doesn't compromise that level of quality. Sounds like I might be holding onto my moto x for as long as possible.

 

[northead]

Wrote my two cents about this on The Verge's forum, in case anyone had two minutes

http://www.theverge.com/2014/1/30/5361922/my-two-cents-on-the-whole-google-motorola-lenovo-thing

 

[lenovox1]

Wrote my two cents about this on The Verge's forum, in case anyone had two minutes

http://www.theverge.com/2014/1/30/5361922/my-two-cents-on-the-whole-google-motorola-lenovo-thing

If it makes you feel any better, the next Moto X will probably be released by the Lenovo owned Motorola in some form, more than likely with all the cool new software things they were hoping to add to it. Lenovo didn't buy Motorola to not release a product.

I, mean, this is the same Lenovo that branded their ThinkCentres and ThinkPads as "IBM Lenovo" for years after they purchased the PC division from IBM.

 

[tino]

I wouldn't continue the Moto X line if I am Lenovo. It has not been a successful model. The previous Atrix, Droid/Milestore, RAZR lines were more successful.

 

[kehs]

I wouldn't continue the Moto X line if I am Lenovo. It has not been a successful model. The previous Atrix, Droid/Milestore, RAZR lines were more successful.

You could at least wait until tomorrow for actual numbers ya know.