Say it’s not so! After shocking news earlier today of a report that Google is possibly selling off Moto to China based Lenovo, a lot of Moto customers and enthusiasts are crying out.
Update: Google has sold the company/brand to Lenovo and the sale is pending in the US and China
Update: Google has just confirmed that they are keeping the Ara Project! Yay!
In all fairness, I was hoping Google would have stuck it out and made Moto the phone company of the future but sadly that doesn’t look to be the case. Back in 2012 there was a rumor that Google only did it for the patents. Most of those patents are being held by Google with the sale of the company, whereas around 2,000 are being sold along with Motorola.
Many were hoping for the same, and the simple fact that Google had purchased a company like Motorola gave many hope for new and innovative things to come on the Moto devices – things we’d seen implimented on the Moto X and Moto G.
That said though, Lenovo is a the top rising PC maker, and it being stationed in China helps with build costs. It’ll be interesting to see how Lenovo handles its new nestegg after Google’s gotten the hype going and it doesn’t hurt that Motorola as a brand isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. How will a PC maker work with having a mobile division? Only time will tell but it’s possible. Just look at how Apple sells iPhones and Microsoft, a software company, now owns the Lumia brand for Windows Phones.
Wait – those are both two companies who make the software and the hardware while Google just sold off its hardware. Hm. While the outcry might be great now, if Lenovo follows through on the smartphone lineup that has Larry excited, it might not be so bad after all….
Google’s Larry Page (CEO) posted on the Google Blog stating
“We acquired Motorola in 2012 to help supercharge the Android ecosystem by creating a stronger patent portfolio for Google and great smartphones for users. Over the past 19 months, +Dennis Woodside and the Motorola team have done a tremendous job reinventing the company. They’ve focused on building a smaller number of great (and great value) smartphones that consumers love. Both the Moto G and the Moto X are doing really well, and I’m very excited about the smartphone lineup for 2014. And on the intellectual property side, Motorola’s patents have helped create a level playing field, which is good news for all Android’s users and partners.
But the smartphone market is super competitive, and to thrive it helps to be all-in when it comes to making mobile devices. It’s why we believe that Motorola will be better served by Lenovo — which has a rapidly growing smartphone business and is the largest (and fastest-growing) PC manufacturer in the world. This move will enable Google to devote our energy to driving innovation across the Android ecosystem, for the benefit of smartphone users everywhere. As a side note, this does not signal a larger shift for our other hardware efforts. The dynamics and maturity of the wearable and home markets, for example, are very different from that of the mobile industry. We’re excited by the opportunities to build amazing new products for users within these emerging ecosystems.
Lenovo has the expertise and track record to scale Motorola into a major player within the Android ecosystem. They have a lot of experience in hardware, and they have global reach. In addition, Lenovo intends to keep Motorola’s distinct brand identity — just as they did when they acquired ThinkPad from IBM in 2005. Google will retain the vast majority of Motorola’s patents, which we will continue to use to defend the entire Android ecosystem.”
You can read more here: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2014/01/lenovo-to-acquire-motorola-mobility.html and here: http://investor.google.com/releases/2014/0129.html
