HTC: Relationship with Google not affected by Motorola acquisition

By on Aug 15, 2011 at 11:45 AM
mobile August 15, 2011

It may seem that Google’s other Android partners would be upset by the search giant’s decision to acquire Motorola for $12.5 billion but that’s apparently not the case. Execs from HTC, LG, Samsung and Sony Ericsson spoke in support of the purchase earlier on Monday, and now HTC has issued a second statement on the deal. “We are supportive of Google’s acquisition of Motorola Mobility as this is a positive development to the Android ecosystem, which we believe is beneficial to HTC’s promotion of Android phones,” an HTC spokesperson told BGR on Monday. “The partnership between HTC and Google remains strong and will not be affected by this acquisition.” HTC’s CEO Peter Chou said his company welcomes the acquisition and noted Google’s commitment to defending Android, its partners and the entire ecosystem. Google’s CEO Larry Page said that the acquisition will allow Google to “better protect Android from anti-competitive threats from Microsoft, Apple and other companies.”

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  • Anonymous

    Yeah, cuz HTC will be the first to have the early Android builds before anyone else. Oh, wait . . .

    • http://www.20b.org/rickroll.html Laurențiu Roman

      They did, it was called the Nexus One. So did Samsung and Motorola too, but they care more about newer phones deprecating older ones rather than supporting the OS after launch (they rarely do support it).

  • BurleyShells

    Guys we’re fine, I swear!

    • Anonymous

      King Othello: “It’s just a flesh wound!”

  • Anonymous

    HTC behind the scenes:  Try to license WebOS and ramp up Windows phones…

    • Anonymous

      Yup! Android will slowly die…

      • Anonymous

        Riiiiiiight! hahahahaha

        Hi Hater!

      • Anonymous

        Hahaha! This bgr comments are so funny

    • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AR6HpRLyzMY Walter Sobchak

      Haven’t both of those companies done the same thing in the past year?

      • Anonymous

        HTC could seek exclusivity for WebOS – HP may give up making hardware altogether and Microsoft hasn’t bought Nokia — yet.

      • Anonymous

        HP is NOT giving up hardware. They just aren’t.

    • Lawrence of Arabia

      MS did kind of the same when they announced the Nokia Partnership.

      For HTC, Android is everything.

  • Asdsd

    Yeah right, that’s what you get for being Google’s concubine

  • Anonymous

    Even if their relationship has been affected what will HTC do, go to Microsoft for Windows Phone 7.

  • Anonymous

    There is a reason Apple makes 70% of the mobile phone profits in the world. Because selling the hardware is what matters. Google realizes this, and once the profits start rolling in, they will look for ways to make more money… And at that point, they will thank samsung and HTC for their support of android, and that they are no longer going to be distribution new versions of android to the companies.

    That’s just how business works… The goal is to make money. Google is simply increasing androids popularity right now by letting everyone use it, and letting the other manufacturers ride the wave for a while.

    For anyone who wants to pretend to themselves that this won’t happen with precious Google… Go take an econ class. Google exists to make money. You know HTC and samsung and everyone else hates this first step that google just took towards android dominance, although they knew it was coming.

    Just to add on: Google didn’t partner with motorola; they bought their mobile division. HTC and samsung are no longer partners with google. They are competitiors. Google used them to build up android. In the coming months, android will have been built up, and it will be time to profit from it then, and the other guys will just be competition.

    • http://profiles.google.com/brotherkane Brian Kane

      “they will thank samsung and HTC for their support of android, and that they are no longer going to be distribution new versions of android to the companies”

      That’s a fairly extreme position to take, which would also be an anti-competitive one in the eyes of the DOJ.  This is just not likely.

      Remember that the core purpose of Android 2 pronged:
      1. Information.  Advertisers want it.
      2. A moat to protect the core (Google search) and grow the secondary (Gmail, Google Maps, Google News, Google +, etc.)

      Severing Samsung, HTC, LG, and others would be foolish.  Now will these companies be more motivated to pursue Windows Phone – yes.

    • Geokaplan

      Yes, moron, and it will cause the Department of Justice to crawl up Google’s ass. And, yes, it makes perfect business sense to push HTC, Samsung, LG and others into the arms of WebOS and Window Mobile. Who needs those losers, anyway? They never designed a phone as beautiful as the Droid or the Atrix.
      Do you want to take another swing at the piñata, or are you simply exhausted by your efforts above? Maybe you should take that first econ class yourself.

      • Anonymous

        You want to know a secret?  In smartphones, and most computer systems in general, the software makes the device; not the hardware.  As long as the hardware is adequately able to run the software, nobody gives a flying f**** about who made the hardware.  Most Macs run the same hardware for the most part as the PCs in the world, and as a matter of fact, most of the PCs have BETTER hardware than the Mac counterparts.  Why do so many millions flock to Mac?  Because they like the software better.

        I personally hate MacOS, and am comfortable with Windows, but the Mac lovers chose Mac because of MacOS, and I chose PCs because I like Windows a lot better, mostly due to me being comfortable with the OS for over a decade.  I didn’t choose Windows because of any hardware manufacturer.

        And you will find the exact same thing is true with smartphones.  Yes, there are Apple lovers who will choose the iPhone because it’s an Apple product, but that is not the norm.  Most people choose what they do because they either like one particular OS platform, or because they are used to one particular OS platform, and see no reason to change.

        In summary, Android fans aren’t choosing Android phones because HTC makes a particular phone, or Samsung, or LG, or whoever.  They choose an Android phone because of the operating system behind it.  If Google decides to only make Android available to Motorola phones in the next year or two, which I would bet my house on, and firmly believe is what you will soon find HTC, LG, Samsung, Sony, etc., will also bet their entire mobile businesses on, you will still see millions upon millions of people flocking to Android phones for the software OS platform.

        You still don’t believe me?  Ask your friends, or even complete strangers, who own an HTC, Samsung, LG, or Sony Android phone this simple question:  If you had a choice between a Motorola Android phone, an HTC/Samsung/LG/Sony WP7 phone, or an Apple iPhone; which phone would you choose?  I’m betting the very large majority answer a Motorola Android phone.  Why?  Most of them will be because they are already familiar and comfortable with Android, and have no reasons to change it.  A Motorola Android phone isn’t going to be THAT different from their current HTC/Samsung/LG/Sony Android phone.

  • Linkgr

    Yeah sure the bought a 12.5 billion dollar company just to let it have average profits, so that htc and samsung can continue to have record quarters. Seems to me the apple way , hardware and software by the same guy has always been the way to go.

    • Anonymous

      Motorola Mobility MMI does not have avrg profits. In fact, theyve been bleeding since the split. They lost 60 million last quarter

      • Geokaplan

        Thank you for being able to read a profit/loss statement. Too many here are unable to do that.

        Google is paying $12.5B for a slice of a company which hasn’t made a profit since Clinton was president (and yes, that’s hyperbole).

  • Test123

     I foresee the motorola under google will stop making hardware entirely,  it will be a software shop, 12 B is just for patents, get it?

  • Anonymous

    First MS partners with Nokia. Then Google buys Moto. Considering HTC has been a strong supporter for both platforms, both in the past and present, they aren’t getting much props are they?

  • http://twitter.com/snookasnoo Idon’t Know

    The Daily Show needs to do a segment on how all the Android partners comments were almost exactly the same in a really creepy way.  Almost as if Google told them what to say…

  • Guest123

    I call bs on this. Those companies must be pissed, and rightly so.

    Their most important supplier will now be competing with them? Hahaha.

    But its not like people didn’t see something like this coming. With everyone just pumping out cookie cutter androids in a spec war, margins will fall and companies will fail. Its only a matter of time. This may just accelerate that shakeout.

    • Anonymous

      Too early to tell

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Mike-Bell/100001788867831 Mike Bell

    HTC is fucked. This whole statement is complete bullshit.

    No one has ever successfuly “not-cmpeted” with their channel. 

    Time for HTC to license webOS and push those WP7 phones like mad!

    • Anonymous

      They already had lots of wp7 phones and sadly it is not doing htc good. Cause clearly the consumers don’t want wp7.

  • Alexander530

    Haven’t they ever heard of “conflict of interest” before?

    Wake up HTC. Motorola is your competition, and now Google is. How you will be doing with your quarterly sales would not be on Google’s priority list. Google will to everything to be the best android OEM. So if I am an android user, why would I choose an HTC device over a Motorola device who is owned by Google themself? I am not saying that HTC won’t sell anymore, but it is unlikely that they will do as well as they do now.

    • Geokaplan

      I’m an Android owner, but I have been impressed with the Win7 phones I have seen.

      Nokia is going to sell for less than Android (which doesn’t bode well for HTC in the near term), but look for MS to get serious traction in the next 12 months. Google has just impeded the growth of Android by causing the biggest manufacturers it has to slow down and reassess their next moves.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Mike-Bell/100001788867831 Mike Bell

    HTC: “We got royally screwed and stabbed in the back but don’t worry… the blade didn’t reach heart… just yet”.

    HTC/Samsung/LG need to find another OS… quick!

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_5HSF7K6WH3MOY3WOLI6C52M3LM Lily Rice

    I just paìd $22.85 for an ìPad 2-64GB and my girlfriend loves her Panasonic Lumix GF 1 Camera that we got for $38.78 there arriving tomorrow by UPS. I will never pay such expensive retail prices in stores again. Especially when I also sold a 40 inch LED TV to my boss for $625 which only cost me $62.81 to buy. Here is the website we use to get it all from, CentHub.còm

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