Responding to Google’s Acquisition of Motorola

It has been fun to read some of the articles about Google’s buyout of Motorola. It is a very interesting story indeed. First thing yesterday, Dan Lyons (of Fake Steve Jobs fame) posted an articles, suck on it applesoft, which immediately prompted MG Siegler and John Gruber to respond with “Defending Android” and Balls. 

I am very much siding with Siegler and Gruber as they actually presented facts and not a hastily written piece based on seemingly nothing other than Dan’s dislike for Microsoft and Apple.

From my article yesterday you can see that I believe that Google is in trouble. This is Larry’s first big move as Google’s CEO and while I think this partially fixes Google’s patent problems they didn’t come out much better in the end. They now have an unprofitable 3rd rate Android handset maker and 20,000 more employees to manage along with a 12.5 billion dollar price tag, which as Gruber explains is over 2 years worth of profit for Google.

So now what? That is the question everyone is trying to answer. Will Google now make better hardware for their Nexus phones? Will they actually create a Google TV that someone other than a 40 year old living in their parents basement would actually use? Will they use Motorola’s patents to “defend” Android by going offensive (I know, they said they wouldn’t do this but…) after Microsoft and Apple?

I’m not sure, but from a business point of view, this deal solved one problem and creates many others for Google. They just became a much more complicated company and that in and of itself creates problems. I wish Google good luck but I won’t be surprised to see this blow up in Larry’s face.

Update: Horace Dediu agrees with me.

Why copying is rarely competition

Dell announced (or rather posted) that they are discontinuing their MacBook Air rival the Adamo. It is pretty obvious that after Apple announced the Air a few years ago that many manufacturers tried to one up Apple in the thinnest and lightest laptop specs. They were copying and competing on those two metrics without really understanding the strategy behind Apple’s introduction of the MacBook Air.

In October, Apple said that the newest MacBook Air is the laptop of the future, and that the entire Apple laptop family would essentially be following suit. Bam! Apple’s strategy with the Air is finally revealed. They needed a product where they could experiment in the market on the dimensions of size, weight, and thinness. The used the MacBook Air to push the envelope of what could be done to reduce all of those factors. The unibody design, the lack of ports and drives, were all done to test the waters before moving the mainstream products in that direction.

Dell and other manufacturers were only creating one off products and copying the Air rather than using it as a strategic move for their mainstream products. So, today the Adamo project is done and Dell goes back to business as usual, while Apple goes forward revamping their entire product line using the lessons learned from the MacBook Air.