China Approval of Google's Motorola Takeover Provides Interesting Future

Google taking over Motorola is done.  Fin.  Even China approved it.  Personally, as a mobile fan, I want Google to step on it and really come out with all the hardware they ever dreamed of running Android on.  However, there are a few notes of interest from the Chinese approval process that we all would be interested in.


Here are the conditions as posted  from Business Insider:

1. Google shall provide Android on a “free and open basis” 

2. In doing so, Google shall treat all original equipment manufacturers on a non-discriminatory basis.

3. Google shall continue to comply with Motorola’s current fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory patent obligations.

4. Google shall commission an independent trustee to monitor and supervise the fulfillment of these obligations.

The first two conditions are required for 5 years.  That means Google has to make sure anyone who wants Android will have access to it.  Then what happens after 5 years?  Perhaps, this is what has many of Google partners worried and skeptical of its assurances when the Motorola deal was announced.


I simply cannot see Google do anything drastic with Android beyond the 5-year period, can you?  

Android, according to Google, is an open-sourced platform from day one. But still, that China has to make Google promise to make Android available for the next five years shows that perhaps they have reason to believe Google has designs for Android that is vastly different from the model on which Android works now.

It’ll be interesting in the next six months to see just how Google will make its merger with Motorola work.  We’ll see new Nexus hardwares, not just handsets but also tablets as well.

There is a lot of indication that Google-Motorola will be working on new hardware with more pure integration with Android and Google’s services that is beyond anything on the market.