Google bought Motorola Mobility

[sacrament055]

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-200...-for-%2412.5b/

Interesting, They just bought a whole bunch of new set top boxes and increased their options for future Android OS/who knows what.

[SHS]

That Cell Phone side of things has nothing to do with set top boxes

[dgeezer]

Actually, the article does say that the set top box division is a part of the sale. Still can't easily cut and paste in my android browser.....

[SHS]

The thing is it dosen't matter if was part of the deal any way the consumer can't buy thoses set top boxes for cable in fact there no 3rdparty cable set top boxes.

[gplasky]

The set top unit became part of Motorola Mobility handset unit about 1 year ago.

Originally Posted by SHS

The thing is it dosen't matter if was part of the deal any way the consumer can't buy thoses set top boxes for cable in fact there no 3rdparty cable set top boxes.

No but Google could begin pushing for that unit to produce an AllVid gateway or some other product to tie in very nicely with future versions of Google TV.

A year ago:

Additionally, the company is dropping clues about what kind of products it might produce through the combination of its handset unit and its set-top box division. The company filed a trademark application for something called "Family Room" with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office that strongly hints at media sharing products.

Gerry

[Fonceur]

In principle they could push some firmware updates to the existing Motorola boxes (through the cable/satellite companies), though I doubt GoogleTV would fit in there... But for newer set-top boxes, talk about getting a good foot-hold in people's houses...

[darcilicious]

But for newer set-top boxes, talk about getting a good foot-hold in people's houses...

Exactly.

[panteragstk]

It's really interesting that they not only got the phone division, but the STB division as well. The purchase could have been primarily for the mobile patents and such. That would make it easier for them to make sure their mobile OS is done correctly on their phones. This could make motorola the android phone to have for the foreseeable future.

It could also mean that they want more than just the mobile division. If their aim was equally for the STB division then google/sagetv may have just gotten a whole lot more interesting. That indicates they actually do intend on making an stb with a dvr instead of an stb that is an overlay for your current dvr. If they do it in a way that lets users have a central dvr with up-gradable storage (the way DirecTV's WHDVR works) then we will have something pretty cool on our hands. The ability to add as many dvr's for unlimited tuners is a must. The only drawback I can see is that motorola makes stb's for u-verse, fios, almost all other cable providers, but none of the satellite providers.

If their STB runs android like the new googletv does then we could have almost all of the functionality we currently have, but none of the control over the tuner selection and things like comskip would likely disappear. Of course none of this will probably happen.

Either way this is interesting.

[Fonceur]

Originally Posted by panteragstk

The only drawback I can see is that motorola makes stb's for u-verse, fios, almost all other cable providers, but none of the satellite providers.

Well, in Canada Shaw Direct (previously StarChoice) uses the Motorola DSR series, so it's not as if Motorola has no experience with satellite receivers...

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by Fonceur

Well, in Canada Shaw Direct (previously StarChoice) uses the Motorola DSR series, so it's not as if Motorola has no experience with satellite receivers...

Of course. It just means directv and dish don't use them (for now anyway). If they actually do this right I can see directv and dish using their stb as it should be the most fully featured to ever exist. If they do it right.

[tmiranda]

Well the financial markets are thinking the STB division bodes well for GoogleTV.

[wayner]

This could make Google forget about their SageTV acquisition of a couple of months ago.

One other thing - what makes you think that cable companies are keen to have a version of GoogleTV running on the STBs that they rent to their consumers? Do they really want to make it easier for their customers to "cut the cable"?

After all - how long ago was it that Cisco bought Scientific Atlanta and Linksys (answer - 6 and 8 years ago)? Surely they could have built an MCE extender or a media extender into a cable box since Linksys was one of the pioneers in that business. My theory on why that never happened is that the cable companies said to them that we will never allow such a device on our network.

[Kronos]

Originally Posted by wayner

This could make Google forget about their SageTV acquisition of a couple of months ago.

Or this could mean that the SageTV deal was done in anticipation of the Motorola deal...

GoogleTV + SageTV + Motorola Phone/Table/STBs...

How about a full Media Center Service with cloud storage for individualized content like pictures, music (apple and amazon both now have cloud music storage services), and home movies. A selection of streamed video to cover most of your TV and Movie needs...

Oh, and you can access everything, from everywhere, on any Android or Chrome device, including new STBs or TVs with a little extra hardware.

The only thing I would expect Google NOT to do would be to mess with tuners and local storage... That would be to much against their overall view of everything as a "Service". Not to mention the tread of moving away from traditional cable/sat business models.

[Zippster]

The google is eating everything............

[samgreco]

I think this all fits in nicely. I actually like it. Who'da thunk it...

[Fuzzy]

http://www.businessinsider.com/suck-it-applesoft-2011-8

[jorton]

It's starting to feel like Wall-E with Buy-n-Large (BnL).

Soon our grocery stores will be "Google" too...

[svemuri]

May be we are reading (hoping?) too much in to this new.

If you follow Larry Page on Google+, this is what is on:

Larry Page - 9:31 AM - Public
Quotes from Android partners

“We welcome today’s news, which demonstrates Google’s deep commitment to defending Android, its partners, and the ecosystem.”
– J.K. Shin
President, Samsung, Mobile Communications Division

“I welcome Google‘s commitment to defending Android and its partners.”
– Bert Nordberg
President & CEO, Sony Ericsson

“We welcome the news of today‘s acquisition, which demonstrates that Google is deeply committed to defending Android, its partners, and the entire ecosystem.”
– Peter Chou
CEO, HTC Corp.

“We welcome Google‘s commitment to defending Android and its partners.”
– Jong-Seok Park, Ph.D
President & CEO, LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company

It appears scripted, but (may be because of these scripted quotes) it looks like this purchase is intended as a replacement for the failed Nortel Patent bid. I guess it doesn't hurt to get HW unit (may be set-top unit) along with the IP portfolio. Just my opinion.

Sarat

[GoAWest]

Did Google just turn Motorola into the new super-TiVo?
http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/gaming....tml?hpt=te_bn2


No mention of little-old-Sage in the article.

[sacrament055]

Originally Posted by GoAWest

Did Google just turn Motorola into the new super-TiVo?
http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/gaming....tml?hpt=te_bn2


No mention of little-old-Sage in the article.

That's kind of what I was getting at. Maybe we'll see cable company set top boxes running Android with the option to add "Apps"