While Verizon didn’t flat-out advocate the proposed Googorola deal, the company was the first U.S. carrier to comment on the merger, saying it welcomed the possibility that these patent disputes might calm down, reports the Wall Street Journal. Apple and others have been on a war path lately, aiming to dismantle Android by attacking major Android OEMs like HTC and Samsung. With Motorola’s 24,000-strong patent trove in its arsenal, Android will be much less vulnerable to litigation.
“We will be looking with interest as further details of the proposed transaction become clear,” said Verizon’s SVP and deputy general counsel John Thorne. “But, at first glance, to the extent that this deal might bring some stability to the ongoing patent disputes, that would be a welcome development.”
Welcome, indeed. Verizon carries and sells more Android devices than any other U.S. carrier with 41 percent of Android phones coming from its stores — a tactic stemming from the iPhone’s four-year exclusivity at AT&T. If the Motoogle deal goes through, Google will take control of 30 percent of the hardware running its platform. That means it will be able to better control and improve Android. In the words of my editor Greg, “by buying Motorola, Google can do whatever the heck they want with Android,” including killing off OEM UIs (and/or making them much better), and ending platform fragmentation a la bullying.
That post goes into more detail, so I won’t be redundant. The point is that Android will become much stronger, and thus, Verizon will account for the majority of handsets running a platform with no where to go but up. Whether explicit or not, I think Verizon likes the sound of that.
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