Lack of protection from Google birthed Samsung's Microsoft deal
Samsung isn't waiting for Google to close its acquisition of Motorola, and neither have a wide variety of other Android licensees who were supposed to be protected by the deal.
Google's $12.5 billion purchase of Motorola was ostensibly about protecting the Android platform, and by extension its licensees, from patent infringement claims by Apple and Microsoft. Motorola's tens of thousands of patents and patent filings were supposed to allow Android a countersuit defense of its infringement cases.
That isn't happening however, notes FOSS Patents writer Florian Mueller. Samsung's new licensing deal with Microsoft is just the latest in a series of deals that have also involved HTC, Acer, ViewSonic, General Dynamics, Itronix, Velocity Micro, Onkyo, and Wistron.
"If Samsung truly believed that Google's acquisition of Motorola Mobility was going to be helpful to the Android ecosystem at large," Mueller wrote, "it would have waited until that deal is closed before concluding the license agreement with Microsoft. But Samsung probably knows it can't rely on Google. It decided to address Android's intellectual property issues on its own."
Seeing what sticks
In addition to announcing a partnership with Microsoft that pays the software vendor royalties on the Android products Samsung sells, the deal also affirms Samsung's support for Microsoft's competing Windows Phone 7 platform.
Samsung is also reported to be stepping up efforts on its own internal Bada smartphone platform, which it launched last year in parallel with very similar phone handsets running WP7 or Android.
Additionally, the company has also announced plans with Intel to support a new Linux-based platform named Tizen, which essentially a replacement of the MeeGo program Intel initiated with Nokia, merging two efforts to produce an open source mobile platform the two firms had earlier maintained in parallel: Intel's Moblin and Nokia's Maemo.
Nokia has since effectively abandoned MeeGo to pursue its WP7 partnership with Microsoft, while Google recently announced its own plans with Intel to bring Android to the chip-maker's Atom mobile processors.
Google's $12.5 billion purchase of Motorola was ostensibly about protecting the Android platform, and by extension its licensees, from patent infringement claims by Apple and Microsoft. Motorola's tens of thousands of patents and patent filings were supposed to allow Android a countersuit defense of its infringement cases.
That isn't happening however, notes FOSS Patents writer Florian Mueller. Samsung's new licensing deal with Microsoft is just the latest in a series of deals that have also involved HTC, Acer, ViewSonic, General Dynamics, Itronix, Velocity Micro, Onkyo, and Wistron.
"If Samsung truly believed that Google's acquisition of Motorola Mobility was going to be helpful to the Android ecosystem at large," Mueller wrote, "it would have waited until that deal is closed before concluding the license agreement with Microsoft. But Samsung probably knows it can't rely on Google. It decided to address Android's intellectual property issues on its own."
Seeing what sticks
In addition to announcing a partnership with Microsoft that pays the software vendor royalties on the Android products Samsung sells, the deal also affirms Samsung's support for Microsoft's competing Windows Phone 7 platform.
Samsung is also reported to be stepping up efforts on its own internal Bada smartphone platform, which it launched last year in parallel with very similar phone handsets running WP7 or Android.
Additionally, the company has also announced plans with Intel to support a new Linux-based platform named Tizen, which essentially a replacement of the MeeGo program Intel initiated with Nokia, merging two efforts to produce an open source mobile platform the two firms had earlier maintained in parallel: Intel's Moblin and Nokia's Maemo.
Nokia has since effectively abandoned MeeGo to pursue its WP7 partnership with Microsoft, while Google recently announced its own plans with Intel to bring Android to the chip-maker's Atom mobile processors.
Comments
Even if Android should survive (unlikely) the combined attacks of Oracle and Apple (without making Android too expensive, or killing it altogether), keeping a platform alive when the own users sue each other by proxy for patents really violated by Google, would have been the death toll.
Between Amazon killing Android tablets today (and cementing an unrealistic price point) and all these patent battles, we should see a lot of OEMs seeking alternatives in the near future. Android may have peaked without generating a penny for Google.
So this licensing deal with MS will provide some protection for Samsung in their ongoing legal battle with Apple...And if so, how?
It wont.
It will provide protection from MS's patents.
Digler's articles here collectively make a very convincing case:
If you want timely news you should just and just read fosspatents.com and digitimes.com directly and just skip AppleInsider's slim rehashes of those sites.
Don't know about that. I would never have the time to go through all these sites. He links to the original article and adds some own commentary/details. And it is quite clear, what was taken from the original source and what has been added. Can't see what is wrong with that. Trying to capture the essential information from something is not necessarily a "slim rehash" (getting large amounts of people to agree about the "essential" parts is a different story).
DED has almost always been right with his predictions, even with pretty bold ones almost nobody else was courageous enough to publish. I prefer that over re-worded press releases any given day.
Digler's articles here collectively make a very convincing case:
If you want timely news you should just and just read fosspatents.com and digitimes.com directly and just skip AppleInsider's slim rehashes of those sites.
What makes it worse is that Apple Insider never even bother to quote the original source because they think they come out with original news sources.
Can you say information censorship? How can you trust a site that doesn't follow BASIC journalism rules?
Digler's articles here collectively make a very convincing case:
If you want timely news you should just and just read fosspatents.com and digitimes.com directly and just skip AppleInsider's slim rehashes of those sites.
But if you want slant and spin, you'll do better right here.
This stuff is usually flimsy conclusions barely based upon unsupportable assumptions and weasel wording.
Take the second paragraph, for example:
"Google's $12.5 billion purchase of Motorola was ostensibly about protecting the Android platform, and by extension its licensees, from patent infringement claims by Apple and Microsoft. Motorola's tens of thousands of patents and patent filings were supposed to allow Android a countersuit defense of its infringement cases."
Lots of possibilities here. And all of this is used to shoehorn the assumption that the acquisition would include every single patent necessary for each of the brands incorporating Android. Only if one makes this assumption could the recent licenses be seen as an indication that the deal is/will be a failure in its intended purpose.
Lack of protection from Google birthed Samsung's Microsoft deal
Best headline ever!!!
Best headline ever!!!
Excellent catch!
I am still convinced that Google bought MMI because they were threatening to sue other Android OEMs for patent violations. That is the only theory that explains the buying price.
You are not alone. I have felt the same way, and even wrote a piece about it a few weeks back.
Another Angle to Google's Motorola Acquisition
Between Amazon killing Android tablets today (and cementing an unrealistic price point) and all these patent battles, we should see a lot of OEMs seeking alternatives in the near future. Android may have peaked without generating a penny for Google.
Don't forget about Bada from Samsung
Come on. Be logical. If Samsung's completely inane, its decisions don't mean anything. On the other hand, if Samsung knows what it's doing, THEN Android is a good choice.
You can't have it both ways. Make a stand guys.
I think that, contrary to what I read here, Android is well and alive. I think that Open Source, out of which Apple saved its ass (Safari, Darwin... anyone?), is under massive attack these days. I also think Google is not going to let Apple or Oracle run rampant on their bizness.
It is however interesting developements of the situation.
The hardware requirements can't be that different... if you're a hardware company that uses software from others, why not hedge your bets and embrace them all?
Don't forget about Bada from Samsung
Samsung and Microsoft...Bada, bada, bing !!
As soon as the new Windows phone OS comes out, watch Samsung drop Android like a hot potato. They will have a better chance with Microsoft to compete against Amazon, Motorola, and others if they get a head start, especially with the Oracle lawsuit decision looming.
let's make bets that they won't drop Android...
Now Oracle sucks. Oracle is just a jerk. Same with Microsoft. Microsoft still behaves unethically and releases products that are just plan crap. Windows 7 might be relatively stable and have a few nice features, but overall their interfaces are still crap. The new Office ribbon annoys me daily, and more importantly their anti-competitive behaviors like this patent war crap annoy me. Apple is unfortunately becoming the new Microsoft with their litigations and their war against Adobe and others. Google is what Apple used to be like. But at least Apple makes the best computers around, there is no question about that for me!
All I can say is screw Oracle. They ruined the best things from Sun. And of course MS if given the chance will do to phones what it did to PCs. Folks cheer for Android. Isn't it better than Windows phone on half the smartphones? I bet there would be no Flash or PDF. Just Silverlight and whatever that stupid PDF replacement Microsoft tried to come up with was called. Ugh.
Best headline ever!!!
I was going to point out that the headline writer doesn't understand the difference in meaning between "from" and "by", but maybe the mistake was intentional.