Motorola buy signals Google, Apple, Microsoft may shut-out handset makers

Stan Beer
Friday, 19 August 2011 12:23

IT Industry - Strategy

In one of the most intriguing hardware market developments in the history of mobile computing, it appears that three emerging giants of mobile hardware and software computing - Google, Microsoft and Apple - are shaping up for a monumental battle. And the big losers could be the hardware only handset makers.

 

With Android now the dominant smartphone operating system handset makers Samsung, HTC, LG, Huawei and Sony Ericsson, who are the top Android licensees must be feeling a little nervous now that Google has acquired Motorola mobility.

The situation threatens to become analogous to a vertically integrated telecoms carrier with a wholesale division selling ISP bandwidth to its own affiliated retail ISP as well as other third party retail ISPs. In theory, all the retailers should get identical service but in practice it never works out that way.

Thus, with Google in charge of Android development, will the Motorola smartphone platform gain favoured status in future Android developments over the other third party handset licensees? Will future Android releases tend to become more tightly integrated with future Motorola smartphones as is the case with iOS and the iPhone?

According to Tony Cripps, Principal Analyst at Ovum, there is a chance that the Google acquisition of Motorola may put off some Android licensees from committing more deeply to the OS. However, outside of creating their own proprietary software platforms as Samsung may well do with Bada, there does not seem to be much choice.

Given Apple iPhone and RIM Blackberry have been off limits to anyone else from day one, Symbian is on its way out after being dropped by Nokia, the only realistic alternative to Android for the hardware only handset makers is Windows Phone.

Unfortunately for the hardware only crowd, however, is that Microsoft has a strategic alliance with Nokia. This is not the same as Microsoft owning Nokia of course, but given Nokia disbanded its longstanding Symbian OS for the new Windows Phone platform, it's a fair bet that future Nokia products are going to be very tightly integrated with the new Microsoft software, while leaving the crumbs for the other handset makers - a similar situation to Motorola and Android.

So the major platforms we are left with are Apple iPhone, Android Motorola, Windows Nokia and the increasingly niche RIM Blackberry.

At the moment, Android is the big winner, largely because of the support it has gained from major handset makers, followed by iPhone, with Windows Nokia yet to throw out a challenge. The question remains whether Google's purchase of Motorola has inserted an unnecessary fly into the ointment.