Google's Motorola buy drives Android partner toward Microsoft

Google’s plan to purchase Motorola may turn at least one of its partners away from Android. Hutchison Whampoa-owned INQ Mobile’s CEO Frank Meehan is “worried” about the proposed acquisition, GigaOm reported on Sunday. “We see a number of major vendors very seriously considering [Windows Phone] as a core platform and therefore we are following their lead and examining it as well to complement our work in Android to date,” Meehan said, noting that INQ could run into fewer legal issues by choosing Microsoft’s mobile operating system. “From a group perspective at Hutchison Whampoa, we have worked hard at bringing Android to consumers across our operations,” Meehan told GigaOm. “However this year there has been a dramatic increase in the way companies are looking to maximize the potential revenues of IPR (intellectual property) holdings, and the trend for many companies is now to concentrate on litigation rather than innovation.” NPD Group’s executive director of industry analysis Ross Rubin said in a report Monday morning that Android’s momentum has created an attractive market for Android phone makers, and the Motorola acquisition would be unlikely to deter them. It looks like for INQ at least, this may not be the case.

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