

Quotes from Android partners - tzury
http://www.google.com/press/motorola/quotes/

======
pilif
Now we are going to see how non-evil the Google's definition of "do no evil"
is going to be. If we take Google's comments about the acquisition at face
value, then the people making these quotes are right: This is a good thing as
it helps Google a lot in their defense against the patent threats.

On the other hand if "do no evil" means "do no evil as long as it helps our
bottom line", then this could very well mean the end of Android's openness.
And it doesn't have to be obvious: It could just be that in the future, we'll
see cool "Google Android" devices running so-far unreleased OS versions.

"The code will be coming - it's just not quite ready for our partners yet"
will be their line.

But the code won't be arriving. Either not until the even newer "Google
Android" device is out, or not at all.

We'll see how this will develop.

Personally, I would love to believe Google here because that means that we are
going to see awesome pure-google phones which will both be a pleasure to use
and well-built hardware-wise, while nobody else will be pissed and will
continue to be able to sell their phones - maybe even without paying Microsoft
for FAT in the future.

If Google doesn't follow through with their promise, we'll still see awesome
devices from them, but the rest of the manufacturers will be stuck with an
outdated, possibly not updated any more, version of Android which is a shame
because I would really love to see Android on devices that are not pure
consumer-phones (like barcode scanners which still run Windows CE or Windows
Mobile 6)

The part of Motorola which Google didn't buy, incidentally is a huge producer
of these scanners after their acquisition of Symbol Technologies a while back.
They continue to produce Windows CE devices to this day.

~~~
loganfrederick
I understand your concern, but is Google keeping its most recent code changes
private and releasing them in the future really that bad?

For example, John Carmack/id Software don't release their current engines
until they've made progress on the next, better version. I don't think many
people consider Carmack to be evil or non-altruistic.

~~~
Terretta
I'm not sure "it's open, once it's obsolete" is how the philosophy is intended
to work.

Also, Carmack doesn't engage in PR wars about the non-openness of others.

------
acangiano
Awkward. Let's reorder and compare them (differences are in italics):

1) “I welcome Google's commitment to defending Android and its partners.”

2) “ _We_ welcome Google's commitment to defending Android and its partners.”

-

3) “We welcome today's news, which demonstrates Google’s deep commitment to
defending Android, its partners, and the ecosystem.”

4) “We welcome _the_ news of today's _acquisition_ , which demonstrates _that_
Google is deep _ly_ commit _ted_ to defending Android, its partners, and the
_entire_ ecosystem.”

~~~
Steko
To: CEOs of Samsung, HTC, LG, Sony-Ericcson.

From: Andy Rubin

So we're buying Motorola. We need a short statement from each of you for our
press release tomorrow morning. Please restate the following in your own words
for our press release (1-2 sentences max):

 _We welcome this acquisition that demonstrates Google's deep commitment to
defending Android, it's partners and the ecosystem._

Try and limit yourself to 1 or 2 sentences. Our team has a couple of examples
attached, first come first served and no exact duplicates please, that would
be awkward. I think it goes without saying that this is a stop ship issue.

------
cryptoz
That's awkward. Welcome, defend, Android, partners, ecosystem. It's all the
same quote.

Edit: But assuming they all mean it, this is actually fantastic. It's good to
see that they aren't afraid; they don't seem themselves in a weakened position
and they do desperately need the legal force that Google can provide to be on
their side.

~~~
macrael
Yeah, creepily robotic. It seems forced, and feels like the lines were fed to
them.

~~~
ugh
That’s how it works. Do you really believe that CEOs have the time to think up
statements?

I thought this was common knowledge by now. The PR people write it, CEOs only
give their ok.

Edit: All the statements being so similar is a testament to very shoddy PR
work but it’s not all that surprising. The same PR people (well, very likely a
single person) from Google who wanted to get statements from the all
presidents and CEOs just called up the PR departments of all the companies and
asked for statements, suggesting, along the way, the language: “Hi, this is
Michael from Google. As you know we will very soon acquire Motorola and it
would be very nice if we could get a short one sentence statement from your
CEO about that, you know, to show your and our shareholders and customers how
committed we are to the Android ecosystem. I can send you an email with an
example statement to give you an idea about the length. Would that be
alright?”

~~~
JimmyL
I'd doubt there was even that much involvement from the other companies - more
along the lines of "We'd like to involve the following quote from your boss as
a third-party validator in our release. OK?" And then their corporate PR says
OK, because they haven't see the other ones, and it goes in the package.

This is how large-scale communications works - you write your message, come up
with quotes that support your message, get them OK'ed by stakeholders, and
send them out. If you ever see a media release that doesn't come from a
speech, and it includes quotes from _anyone_ , you can bet they never actually
said those things - someone from PR wrote them, and got them OKed to have been
considered said.

Put it another way, the first time the CEOs quoted ever saw what they "said"
was probably when they read this page

~~~
ugh
That’s certainly also possible. I was just thinking there was more involvement
because I have a really hard time imagining that some PR person at Google was
writing one statement after another and didn’t notice how odd they would sound
if you put them together on a page. Noticing stuff like that is something PR
people are supposed to be good at.

That’s why I was thinking that Google gave them some talking points and they
got oddly similar sounding statements back and didn’t really bother changing
them afterwards.

------
biot
One executive, who didn't quite understand how the speaking points should be
assembled, was quoted as saying "We welcome the deep ecosystem and should be
committed for defending our Android partner."

------
scottkduncan
> We welcome Google‘s commitment to defending Android and its partners.

Only in the patent-crazy mobile market would you get four CEOs applauding
Google's acquisition of one of their direct competitors saying that it
"defends" their interests.

Looks like everyone is gearing up for some serious litigation, and
unfortunately the only winners in that will be the lawyers.

------
taylorbuley
Android is not free, at least in the business sense. With Google needing to
spend $12.5b to "keep it free," I wonder if it's really free in software
sense. Forked from Google, would it stand?

------
Terretta
Giving new meaning to the term "Android clones".

~~~
javaecc123
Giving new meaning to the term "Android"

------
markokocic
This sounds like they all received a command saying "You should welcome
Google's commitment to defending Android and its partners." and they all
obeyed.

------
TwistedWeasel
So, let's get this right. Google just got all in a huff about people spending
$4.5B on patents and then goes out and spends $12.5B on a company with one of
their primary stated motives being the acquisition of patents?

~~~
jonknee
Google is fighting in multiple venues. Public opinion requires getting all in
a huff. Judges and attorneys require a legal defense (or appropriate offense).

~~~
Steko
They're also huge hypocrites.

No one questions that Google is fighting and needs this for their defense.
People are calling bullshit when Google points fingers at everyone else but
themselves for creating a "bubble" in patents.

~~~
jonknee
Google points fingers for companies going on the patent offensive, not bidding
up patents for defense (their claimed strategy).

[http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/when-patents-
attack-a...](http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/when-patents-attack-
android.html)

"They’re doing this by banding together to acquire Novell’s old patents (the
“CPTN” group including Microsoft and Apple) and Nortel’s old patents (the
“Rockstar” group including Microsoft and Apple), to make sure Google didn’t
get them; seeking $15 licensing fees for every Android device; attempting to
make it more expensive for phone manufacturers to license Android (which we
provide free of charge) than Windows Phone 7; and even suing Barnes & Noble,
HTC, Motorola, and Samsung. Patents were meant to encourage innovation, but
lately they are being used as a weapon to stop it."

~~~
Steko
Did you even read the whole blog post?

"This anti-competitive strategy is also escalating the cost of patents way
beyond what they’re really worth. The winning $4.5 billion for Nortel’s patent
portfolio was nearly five times larger than the pre-auction estimate of $1
billion. Fortunately, the law frowns on the accumulation of dubious patents
for anti-competitive means — which means these deals are likely to draw
regulatory scrutiny, and this patent bubble will pop."

~~~
jonknee
Of course I read the post, the reason prices went up for this auction is
because the winners planned to go on the offensive (those licenses add up when
you're shipping a half million phones a day). Google's upset about having to
spend so much money for defense against dubious patents. It's not hypocritical
whatsoever.

~~~
Steko
It takes two to bid up a price.

------
brk
Reading these quotes is like watching a hostage video...

"We are being treated kindly and our captors are attending to our needs."

------
timjahn
Can we just all make a pact that we never spew out such canned, meaningless
dribble when put in the same situation?

If you're not going to say anything of meaning, please don't say it.

~~~
Someone
I think they have to say something. Otherwise, they may get quoted as
"declined to comment".

Also, I think they almost must say something without content, as anything they
say that might have content could affect shareholder value, and hence, could
make them liable.

It may seem weird, but the ability to come up with a quote without content on
short notice can be valuable.

------
vetler
I welcome these welcoming quotes.

------
Astrohacker
It is truly bizarre that this purchase appears to be entirely about protecting
themselves against patents. How can anyone not see that the system is broken?

------
dotBen
Look, this is about patents more than anything, given that Google ended up not
controlling all the patents it needs for Android _(which was kind of dumb, but
I digress)_. That directly impacts on Google's partners to build phones for
the Android platform.

The bigger win in profit and power for Google is to have Android running on as
many phones as possible (across multiple manufactures), and not turn this into
a zero-sum game from the profits of Motorola alone.

Therefore my guess is Google has bought Motorola Mobile simply to keep the
business running independently but to ensure the patents are not enforced
against the other manufacturers and be able to leverage non-Android patents in
the Moto portfolio to wrangle the Android ones it still needs. The value of
all this, along with the profits of the business, are probably worth the $12bn
price paid.

------
huxley
I don't think they were consulted, this feels like they were presented with a
fait-accompli and given sample "supportive statements" that they barely
modified before sending back to Google's PR.

------
yalogin
Defending Android is just a minor aspect of it. What these guys are not
talking about is their worry that Google is now a direct competitor rather
than an enabler. They know what features will go into the next version of
their OS. They have all the data they gather about user interaction and usage
gathered from their OS which they can use to better design their hardware.
Samsung, HTC and others should be worried.

------
yalogin
These statements actually also indicate that its only Google that is trying to
defend Android. These companies Samsung, HTC, Motorola, Sony and others must
have a bigger mobile patent portfolio than Apple and MS put together. If they
wanted they could have easily banded together as an entity to protect each
other. But clearly that is not what they want to do. That is the ugly truth
about patents.

------
wccrawford
Does anyone else feel they are all speaking with the same voice? :D

~~~
knodi
Haha, ya I was just about it say. 4 "welcome" in 4 comments from 4 different
people, thats not a coincidence.

------
dman
Nice to see a large company (LG) having a Ph.D as a CEO

------
brainless
The first (Samsung) and third (HTC) seem to be copies. Similarly second (Sony
Ericsson) and fourth (LG).

------
silent1mezzo
Do they all have the same PR company?

------
nutjob123
I wonder if they all use the same corporate speechwriting agency.

~~~
davidedicillo
Yes, they all use Google's one

------
parfe
Are these partners paying anything to google?

------
dillon
Seems to me they love Google :p

------
FrancescoRizzi
so, who wrote this one statement originally and passed it on?

------
nhangen
Defend against what?

~~~
Djehngo
[http://www.pcworld.com/article/237278/google_exec_says_apple...](http://www.pcworld.com/article/237278/google_exec_says_apple_microsoft_waging_hostile_patent_campaign_against_android.html)

------
recoiledsnake
No wonder all the quotes look so alike and are no doubt fed by Google PR. They
are not telling how they _really_ feel about this.

This is like Microsoft buying Dell in the early nineties. You think HP, Acer,
Compaq, Gateway etc. would have been amused by that?

~~~
fpgeek
This is like Microsoft buying DEC in the early 90s (which, ironically, they
might have had to do over IP issues related to Windows NT if the post-Olsen
DEC leadership had had any guts). Motorola isn't successful enough with
Android to be considered Dell.

~~~
recoiledsnake
They have been pushing a whole bunch of phones, a 15% cut of the entire US
market is a huge number of phones.

