It’s been a while since we heard anything about the Google-Motorola Mobility deal.  We all know that regulators from the US and EU already approved the deal but that doesn’t mean Google-MoMo’s already in the clear.  They still need to get the approval from regulators in China, Taiwan and Israel.

Chinese regulators are still scrutinizing the deal and it doesn’t look like they’ll be handing down a decision anytime soon.

“We continue to work closely with regulators in China on their review of our planned acquisition, which will enhance competition, bringing consumers faster innovation and more choice,” Google spokesman Taj Meadows told Bloomberg News.

Google to sell MoMo to Huawei

Some unnamed sources stated that the reason China is taking their sweet time in deciding as to whether or not approve the deal is because they are still looking into other politically charged matters.

Allegedly, Google only wants the MoMo patents and made a deal to sell Motorola’s cable set-top box business to Huawei.  Now, they’re still looking into the matter is the deal would violate the 2008 Chinese Anti-Monopoly Law.

“Compared to what Google does, the smartphone business has horrible economics,” said Bernstein analyst Pierre Ferragu. “The reason to buy Motorola was to strengthen patents. Now they have that, the logical thing is to sell the rest.”

A person from Google denied the rumor.  Google is banking on becoming everything at once.

What to do?

Let’s forget about the Huawei rumor for a minute.  What use is a hardware company to a software company?  That’s simple, if you put these two together, you’d come up with the total package, right?  But it’s not that simple, since such a deal wouldn’t be fair to other OEMs using the Android platform should this deal procure a Google-MoMo device.  That would again open the issue of Android’s openness.

There’s no telling where the Google-MoMo deal will end up, how Google plans to leverage the acquisition, integrate the two companies or avoid a monopoly that shakes their OEM structure, but here are some suggestions as to how Google can better utilize Motorola:

• First, though Google can’t favor MoMo, they should use Motorola devices to show the Android’s UI.  We know that OEMs tweak the platform in order to make it look like more of their product than Google’s so Google should definitely focus into making Motorola devices like a model phone.
• Use Motorola’s innovations in the Android platform – this would actually help other OEMs to fend off lawsuits from other companies since the Android platform would be protected by the Motorola patents.
• Though Google already has a cloud service which may launch anytime, Motorola’s Zecter offering could beef things up.
• And though Google owns MoMo, the search giant shouldn’t hinder the manufacturer’s progress when it comes to creating innovative products.  It still has to be able to compete with other Android OEMs without Google favoring them.