The Tech World War has begun and the weapons being used are Patents. The war was declared open when a secret alliance of Microsoft, Apple, RIM, Sony, Oracle & Co bid successfully for the 6000+ Nortel Patents and left Google scratching its head. The Nortel patents were quite important to Google than any other party involved as many of those patents were related to the Android ecosystem on which Google has placed big hopes on. Google cried foul and has appealed against the unfair bidding on anti-competitive grounds.
Android was beginning to be a bigger threat to other mobile operating systems (iOS, Blackberry, Windows, Symbian) than anyone expected. More than 60% smartphones activated per day are Android devices. Google wants the Android Operating System to be free and open. But the Nortel Patents would give Microsoft & Co the power to demand a fee for each and every android device sold. And this implies that manufacturers of Android phones have to incur additional royalty cost which will eventually be passed onto the customers. Now, we don't want that, do we?
Google had to do something. They ended up acquiring Motorola Mobility Solutions for $12.5 billion! It is worth noting here that Google didn't pay $12.5 billion for the Motorola's brand, its employees, its phones or its manufacturing capabilities. They just wanted the bloody 14000+ patents that Motorola owned. These patents are the new weapons that Google plans to use as defense against patent attacks on them or any of their partners. This is a hefty price that Google has paid to preserve Android ecosystem. Only time will tell whether it's a worthy investment or not.
There is another interesting patent battle going on between Samsung and Apple. Samsung, an important ally of Google, has hugely benefited from Android OS. Their Android phones are a big hit. Samsung Galaxy S II sold 3 million phones in 55 days! (that's remarkable for a non-iPhone). Their Galaxy Tab was also doing fairly well and was second in terms of market share (which is tiny by the way) behind Apple's iPad. Apple, clearly unhappy with it, blocked the sales of the latest Galaxy Tab in several countries claiming that Galaxy Tab infringed several of iPad's design patents. Samsung wasn't happy either and has now requested for the removal of iPhone & iPads from the shelves as Apple's products have infringed the wireless technology patents that are held by Samsung. This battle is still alive and kicking. Samsung Vs Apple relation is tricky since Samsung provides a significant hardware parts for iPhones and Apple is Samsung's No.1 customer. Strange relationship this?
Patents have grown at alarming rate in the technology industry. If you go through some of the technology patents, they will look absolutely ridiculous. The whole point of patents is to encourage innovation and reward the innovator. Patents made more sense in other sector as patents were usually awarded for the processes, product design, the formulae and the excessive research that goes behind. In the technology world, it is tricky though. The number of technology patents are freakishly high, that any developer would have no clue if he/she is infringing a patent or not.
Google is involved in other smaller battles too. While the acquisition of Motorola may have given Google the breathing space with respect to Android, their biggest threat is Facebook. Google's prime source of revenue is from Search and Ads. Google's search engine is the most visited site on the world, however Facebook is catching up very fast. More importantly, the amount of time people spend on Facebook is several folds higher than the time spent on other Google services and this makes Facebook a more attractive destination for digital marketers. The recently launched Google+ is what Google is hoping on counter this threat. Not sure how this will shape up. AFAIK, there isn't a disruptive or a killer feature in Google+ that would make people move from Facebook.
Google poses a considerable threat to Microsoft through Google Aps and Chrome. Chrome has eaten into the market share of Internet Explorer market considerably. Also, more smaller business are moving to the Google Aps model. A cloud setup such as Google Aps, saves time and money for any enterprise from maintaining a IT system in-house. And as you move more of your data and applications online, an operating system such as Windows becomes irrelevant. This is a long term threat to Microsoft which they are clearly aware of. Infact, Google's Chromebook, a web-based operating system, was directly positioned against Windows.
Unfortunately, Google has made enemies with almost all technology giants because they try to do everything that others do. They give away ground-breaking products for free and the revenue model doesn't charge the users. However, this isn't the case with companies like Microsoft and Apple, who haven't got a philanthropic history of giving stuff away for free. Also Google doesn't use patents to attack other companies - they just use the patents for defense. Even when Microsoft copied Google Search results, they never went to the court, they just went public! And we all know how Google has made AOL and Yahoo! less profitable, thanks to the awesome Gmail!
The future is going to be interesting in the technology space as these technology giants fight it out for the bigger pie.
Android was beginning to be a bigger threat to other mobile operating systems (iOS, Blackberry, Windows, Symbian) than anyone expected. More than 60% smartphones activated per day are Android devices. Google wants the Android Operating System to be free and open. But the Nortel Patents would give Microsoft & Co the power to demand a fee for each and every android device sold. And this implies that manufacturers of Android phones have to incur additional royalty cost which will eventually be passed onto the customers. Now, we don't want that, do we?
Google had to do something. They ended up acquiring Motorola Mobility Solutions for $12.5 billion! It is worth noting here that Google didn't pay $12.5 billion for the Motorola's brand, its employees, its phones or its manufacturing capabilities. They just wanted the bloody 14000+ patents that Motorola owned. These patents are the new weapons that Google plans to use as defense against patent attacks on them or any of their partners. This is a hefty price that Google has paid to preserve Android ecosystem. Only time will tell whether it's a worthy investment or not.
There is another interesting patent battle going on between Samsung and Apple. Samsung, an important ally of Google, has hugely benefited from Android OS. Their Android phones are a big hit. Samsung Galaxy S II sold 3 million phones in 55 days! (that's remarkable for a non-iPhone). Their Galaxy Tab was also doing fairly well and was second in terms of market share (which is tiny by the way) behind Apple's iPad. Apple, clearly unhappy with it, blocked the sales of the latest Galaxy Tab in several countries claiming that Galaxy Tab infringed several of iPad's design patents. Samsung wasn't happy either and has now requested for the removal of iPhone & iPads from the shelves as Apple's products have infringed the wireless technology patents that are held by Samsung. This battle is still alive and kicking. Samsung Vs Apple relation is tricky since Samsung provides a significant hardware parts for iPhones and Apple is Samsung's No.1 customer. Strange relationship this?
Patents have grown at alarming rate in the technology industry. If you go through some of the technology patents, they will look absolutely ridiculous. The whole point of patents is to encourage innovation and reward the innovator. Patents made more sense in other sector as patents were usually awarded for the processes, product design, the formulae and the excessive research that goes behind. In the technology world, it is tricky though. The number of technology patents are freakishly high, that any developer would have no clue if he/she is infringing a patent or not.
Google is involved in other smaller battles too. While the acquisition of Motorola may have given Google the breathing space with respect to Android, their biggest threat is Facebook. Google's prime source of revenue is from Search and Ads. Google's search engine is the most visited site on the world, however Facebook is catching up very fast. More importantly, the amount of time people spend on Facebook is several folds higher than the time spent on other Google services and this makes Facebook a more attractive destination for digital marketers. The recently launched Google+ is what Google is hoping on counter this threat. Not sure how this will shape up. AFAIK, there isn't a disruptive or a killer feature in Google+ that would make people move from Facebook.
Google poses a considerable threat to Microsoft through Google Aps and Chrome. Chrome has eaten into the market share of Internet Explorer market considerably. Also, more smaller business are moving to the Google Aps model. A cloud setup such as Google Aps, saves time and money for any enterprise from maintaining a IT system in-house. And as you move more of your data and applications online, an operating system such as Windows becomes irrelevant. This is a long term threat to Microsoft which they are clearly aware of. Infact, Google's Chromebook, a web-based operating system, was directly positioned against Windows.
Unfortunately, Google has made enemies with almost all technology giants because they try to do everything that others do. They give away ground-breaking products for free and the revenue model doesn't charge the users. However, this isn't the case with companies like Microsoft and Apple, who haven't got a philanthropic history of giving stuff away for free. Also Google doesn't use patents to attack other companies - they just use the patents for defense. Even when Microsoft copied Google Search results, they never went to the court, they just went public! And we all know how Google has made AOL and Yahoo! less profitable, thanks to the awesome Gmail!
The future is going to be interesting in the technology space as these technology giants fight it out for the bigger pie.
Very informative post! Didn't know the strange relation between Samsung and iPhone
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