from the all-the-better-to-follow-you-with dept.
Google has acquired HTC's "Pixel" division, which has made premium Android products for Google, for $1.1 billion. Google will get around 2,000 new employees (around a fifth of HTC's total workforce) and a non-exclusive license for HTC's "intellectual property":
Of the three most influential companies in smartphone design, Nokia fragmented into a million pieces after being bought out by Microsoft, Apple is still going strong, and Google just bought the third with its $1.1 billion deal with HTC. The reason why Google acquired what looks to be the majority of HTC's phone design and engineering team is simple, and it's been obvious for over a year: Google is serious about becoming a hardware company.
Early in 2016, Google created a new hardware division and re-hired Motorola chief Rick Osterloh to run that group. A brief few months after that, the company was plastering the streets of Europe and the US with billboards trumpeting the arrival of the first "Made by Google" Pixel devices. Why do we refuse to acknowledge what's right in front of our eyes? Google is going to war against the iPhone.
[...] The Motorola deal was complex, involved a vast and valuable patent portfolio, and required careful balancing to preserve at the least the appearance of Motorola operating independently. With its new staff coming in from HTC, Google is getting a big and highly experienced team — close to 2,000 people, according to HTC CFO Peter Shen — and it's putting them directly under [former Motorola chief Rick] Osterloh's command. There's no confusion about where orders are coming from, or any external interests that need to be appeased. It's just going to be Google, suddenly powered up with the years of experience that a new hardware vendor usually lacks, with the clear goal of ousting Apple's iPhone from its position as the device most identified with the word "smartphone."
Compare to the $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility in 2011.
Also at Google's Blog (written by Google Senior Vice President of Hardware, Rick Osterloh), Business Insider, Reuters, The Register, and The Street.
Previously: Google to Buy HTC Phone Business
Related Stories
Android Central and many others are reporting that HTC has issued a Trading Halt pending a Major Announcement order to the markets.
The reason:
Google is expected to buy HTC's smartphone business altogether, taking on its research and development, manufacturing, distribution and supplier ties. HTC will continue to operate its other business units, but it isn't yet clear what would come of its HTC-branded phones.
It has been rumored that HTC was in the "final stage of negotiation with Google" for selling off its smartphone business, and it looks like things are coming to a head.
Google needs handsets to support its Pixel line of phones for Project Fi demands and has only been partly successful in filling these needs by contracting with manufacturers for the custom phones needed to support the multi-carrier Fi phones. HTC is currently manufacturing the Pixel line of phones for Google.
HTC has made outstanding phones that suffered from poor marketing, and has never garnered a significant market share.
See also https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-09-20/google-is-said-close-to-buying-htc-assets-to-bolster-hardware (Warning Auto-play Video) where Bloomberg's analysts points out:
A more Apple-like approach to smartphone production would also allow Google to steer Android in its preferred direction. The tech giant has struggled to get handset makers and carriers to ship Android devices with new, secure software. The Pixel was designed, in part, to prompt other Android phone makers to follow on the latest Google bells and whistles. Still, some Android partners are moving ahead with competing software efforts -- Huawei Technologies Co. linked up with Amazon's assistant, and Samsung Electronics Co. is building its own.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Friday September 22 2017, @06:42AM (3 children)
If corporations gonna corporate, Google is going to end up with a two tier android system, the premium one for their beloved google line and the other for the plebeian competitors.
The plebeian competitors will split between the big players (samsung, and possible no one else) that can support their own android brand and the cheap makers which will have a strong incentive to band up on the most open android ecosystem possible. These ones might end up as the IBM PC clones that actually made the revolution happen.
Unfortunately, the hardware maker market is quite different from the golden age, they learned a few tricks, so this might not result in any FREE ecosystem for us.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by opinionated_science on Friday September 22 2017, @10:36AM (2 children)
I have been a bit more optimistic. Perhaps the new "Treble" initiative will synch the software at certain threshold of "working".
It does seem someone at Google has looked at Apple's tighthly integrated verticals and said "we need that".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 22 2017, @08:26PM (1 child)
You mean they walk around with constant erections?
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday September 22 2017, @10:25PM
Wouldn't you, if people worshiped every decision you make?
Cult Gurus clearly demonstrate it might be a real issue.
(Score: 2) by cubancigar11 on Friday September 22 2017, @01:50PM (6 children)
Hardware is just part of what and why Apple sells. The other part is support. And for all the complaints about how Apple is not as great is it is marketed, it is infinite times better than Google because Google provides 0 support.
As long as people look at Apple and see a company that respects them and Google, as a company that hires talented people and then dominates everyone else, I doubt controlling the whole chain is going to help them.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 22 2017, @02:09PM (2 children)
True. If I buy, say, a Samsung phone, Google provides 0 support. But Samsung does provide some support, so the comparison is kinda bogus, and it's not like there's any good reason to suppose that Google will continue to provide 0 support when they're selling their own phones.
Now perhaps Apple support is better than Samsung support, and I'm quite sure Apple support is better than the average of all Android phone makers' support, but we're still talking finite ratios here.
Yes, as long as people perceive one company through a weird positive delusion and one accurately, the one not benefiting from a reality distortion field won't have much luck no matter what they do.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by cubancigar11 on Friday September 22 2017, @03:40PM (1 child)
Calling customers "delusional" who you want to convert, is exactly the attitude people associate with Google. How about Samsung is not Google so Google doesn't get to steal Samsung's credit? And since before this acquisition google was not in the business of mobile hardware, you don't look towards Samsung and HTC to have something and instead talk about the support Google provides in other areas? What support does google provide for YouTube, Google Groups, Hangout, GMail.
You live in a fantasy fanboi world, boy. In real world people the rich people are lawyers, doctors and managers. Those are the people who define trendiness, not your snarky condescending coder. And they want to go to a shop and say - this shit ain't working please do something, then treated to air-conditioned classy atmosphere, and have whatever was faulty replaced by the new shiny with a thank you. People pay premium for THAT. Not for - I sent an email and got an automated response 1 week later, which asked me 10 questions I have no idea about.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 22 2017, @11:51PM
You assume that this is about converting people from one tribe to another... what's that say about you? I don't want to convert anyone, and never indicated that I did.
We're not talking about credit, we're talking about expectations. You want to believe Google-as-phone-vendor will offer zero end-user support, but only offered as evidence the fact that Google-as-OS-supplier offers zero end-user support. I'm pointing out that's a bogus comparison -- No matter how good or bad of support Google would (or will) provide on their own phones, they would still provide zero support to people who buy Samsung phones, or HTC phones, or Motorola phones, because those aren't their customers! They're Samsung's, HTC's, and Motorola's customers, so Samsung, HTC, and Motorola give them support.
Do you understand the differences between "free" software/services and multi-hundred-dollar hardware?
Sure, if Google runs their Pixel-phone support just like their YouTube support, they're gonna fail big time. But you've still offered no reason to believe they would do such a ludicrously stupid stunt. I'm sure they'll offer much worse support than apple (at the very least, they won't have nearly as many brick-and-mortar locations; last I heard they have 4 in Canada and 4 in the US!), but that's still a finite ratio; you claim they will offer zero support, but where's the evidence?
It's funny that you call me a fanboi, considering I said that your assessment of Google was accurate. Again, you seem to be seeing this as some sort of us vs. them battle, and since I'm not fully on your side, you assume I'm one of "them". And again, what does that say about you?
I'm not saying you've gone full fanboi, but I'm pretty sure letting this tribalism keep you from reading the post you're replying to is at least the first step down that path.
Were we talking about who sets trends? Because I thought we were talking about the proposition that Apple respects its customers. And no matter how faithfully you battle it out with straw fanbois on the internet, Apple does not respect you! They just pretend better than Google.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Pax on Friday September 22 2017, @03:38PM (2 children)
respect? I nearly shat myself laughing at that.... i must've been holding my bowels wrong then eh?
(Score: 2) by cubancigar11 on Friday September 22 2017, @03:43PM (1 child)
You must have, or you might have majorly surrounded yourself by people who have stopped questioning you. Here in real world Steve Jobs is synonymous with charisma, whether you like it or not.
And just to make sure you actually give this thing some thought, I don't own and have never owned any apple product. Not even iTunes shuffle back in the day.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 22 2017, @08:43PM
Charisma != respect.
People are simply falling for the bullshit marketing tactics, Apple respects their customers not one bit. They do a pretty good job of pretending they care though, to the point where they charge extra for their super-awesome-apple-experience. I'm sure quite a few suckers think they are getting A++++ treatment since every piece costs 2X as much.