Google announcing the acquisition of Motorola Mobilty was fun to watch.  We covered the news here and here.  Simply put: Google needs help for their Android position – help to the tune of $12 billion.  They need to get their end product to be of consistently high quality, position for new markets, and have patents for protection.  This is classic Google: run like the wind, get a big growing position (at all costs), then fix it.  This deal is about Google fixing things in their mobile area.

Google and CEO Larry Page just stocked up on some “Tech Nukes” – Patents.  Patents are today’s technology nuclear weapons, or WMDs.  Patents played a big role in Google’s acquiring Motorola Mobility.

Larry Page highlighted this in his briefing.  Acquiring Motorola is about “protecting the ecosystem, and extending it as well,” said Page.  Motorola has almost 20,000 patents.   Google has the patents and won’t be afraid to use them.  No doubt those patents will serve to protect the growing Android ecosystem.

Google gets some nice amo (patents) and product (portfolio) to shore up their growth challenges, while Android lives to fight another day.  This sends a big message to developers, partners, and consumers – Google is a serious long term player in the next generation of the Internet – mobile, home, and web.  This deal just solidifies that Google’s long-term strategy to dominate the global consumer market strategy is in place.

 Motorola Mobility Was For Sale – Patents and All

Motorola Mobility was stuck in the mud and was for sale.  Sad really, but from a hardware perspective the Motorola Mobility division represents the hottest segment of the market – smartphones, tablets, and set top boxes. That is what Google wanted.  Google is acquiring Motorola Mobility, a separate business unit that manufactures mobile phones, tablets and set-top boxes.

Motorola shipped 8.5 million Android-powered smartphones and 700,000 tablets in the first half of this year, compared to the 40+ million iPhones Apple has sold.  In addition, Google is pushing hard and losing with Google TV as recent momentum has been flat. Apple has Apple TV, and according to my sources developing a television of its own.

Google’s Android Problem: Growth is Strong But Hardware Products Are Weak

Google has always stated that they want Android to rule the mobile landscape.  Lets just get that out of the way.  Google Android kingpin Andy Rubin said Google wants Android to be open.  He says that Motorola won’t be getting any special treatment.  I don’t buy it.  Bottom line; Google Android has been a huge success (see Millennial Media’s 50^th report on industry market share), but the hardware products have been underwhelming.

Google over the past few years has been very successful with developers.  However, the reliability of Android-based hardware products are lacking, and according to my sources, killing deals with mobile providers because of inconsistent hardware problems that range from bad RF to overuse of the spectrum.   Apple doesn’t have this problem.  Have a working hardware division sets the pace for hardware innovation for Google and keeps the rest of the market in check.

 Google is the New Microsoft – Will The Gov’t Challenge Google? 

The FTC has been watching Google under a microscope lately, and with the move to buy Motorola’s mobile business the US government might go hard at Google like they did with Microsoft in the late 90s.  The argument of the government will be to focus on keeping the marketplace competitive.

More importantly, does this change the current government investigation or add more fuel to their case?  It’s not like Google owns the mobile market more than Apple.  However, one can argue that if Google can own the end-to-end consumer experience combined with their existing reach in search and user data, Google is an entity waiting to be regulated by a government that loves to regulate.