Some speculate that the Motorola acquisition was for their patent portfolio rather than their product line. I don't know how much credence to give that theory. An argument in favor of it is how quickly the Motorola phone business (minus the patents) was sold off to Motorola and an argument against it is that Motorola's former patents don't seem to be especially valuable to Google.
This would be interesting. Currently Google makes a loss on Android development and licensing. They make this money back by using Android as a marketing/advertising vehicle for their other products.
If they were making significant money through selling phones directly that could change the dynamic.
Google made $31 billion in revenue from Android, according to court filings in the Oracle case.
Base Android (AOSP) is free, but Google Play Services costs real money. Add in advertising & their cut of app sales, and Android is a huge profit center.
What other business units does HTC have besides the smartphone business? They've got the Vive, but I thought manufacturing smartphones was the majority of their business.
If that's sold to Google, what's left of the business?
Because they are a stock market listed company, the way to check this is to read their annual report[0], which can be found by searching 'htc annual report'. The latest is from 2016, published March 2017. VR and Healthcare are listed.
Interestingly, HTC bought a company I used to work for way back in 2010, that was focused on cross-platform mobile video solutions (including content discovery/DRM/licensing). They sold it like a hot potato only a year later after apparently changing corporate strategy, I suspect for legal reasons (we had large contracts with most rival manufacturers: Nokia/Sony Ericsson/LG/Samsung/etc.). They also bought the Beats brand in 2011, which IIRC has recently been acquired by Apple. For a nominally famously 'engineer run organization' HTC certainly seems to vacillate in its strategic development.
HTC offers no value add to Google. The future, as seen in financials, is in vertical integration.
The Samsung and LGs of the world make their own screens, storage, RAM, ... They can compete at the lower end on cost, and their vertical integration allows them profits to innovate at the top end. HTC has no expertise, either in a particular component, or in software.
[+] [-] scarface74|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dhd415|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] euyyn|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sysdyne|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dilemma|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] comstock|8 years ago|reply
If they were making significant money through selling phones directly that could change the dynamic.
[+] [-] elefanten|8 years ago|reply
It's not immediately clear why Google would be better positioned to do so with these assets
[+] [-] reactiveinertia|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|8 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] bryanlarsen|8 years ago|reply
Base Android (AOSP) is free, but Google Play Services costs real money. Add in advertising & their cut of app sales, and Android is a huge profit center.
[+] [-] kevin_b_er|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] contingencies|8 years ago|reply
Interestingly, HTC bought a company I used to work for way back in 2010, that was focused on cross-platform mobile video solutions (including content discovery/DRM/licensing). They sold it like a hot potato only a year later after apparently changing corporate strategy, I suspect for legal reasons (we had large contracts with most rival manufacturers: Nokia/Sony Ericsson/LG/Samsung/etc.). They also bought the Beats brand in 2011, which IIRC has recently been acquired by Apple. For a nominally famously 'engineer run organization' HTC certainly seems to vacillate in its strategic development.
[0] http://media.corporate-ir.net/media_files/IROL/14/148697/Ann...
[+] [-] mankash666|8 years ago|reply
The Samsung and LGs of the world make their own screens, storage, RAM, ... They can compete at the lower end on cost, and their vertical integration allows them profits to innovate at the top end. HTC has no expertise, either in a particular component, or in software.
[+] [-] TwoNineA|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] elefanten|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] amiga-workbench|8 years ago|reply
After Scott Croyle left their design work really suffered too, the M7 wiped the floor with what Apple were doing design-wise at the time.
[+] [-] otp124|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sooperb|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ProAm|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] devmunchies|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] egberts1|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mikestew|8 years ago|reply
Granted, mistakes look to have been honestly made on the part of some, but the fact that this made it out the door is all I need to know.