Tech Thoughts (August 17, 2011) - Microsoft is the largest beneficiary of Google’s acquisition of Motorola
If Microsoft plays their cards right, they stand to reap the largest rewards relating to Google’s acquisition of Motorola. Microsoft can now tell smartphone manufacturers that unlike Google, “We’re not competing with you on the hardware front, we just want to be your dedicated mobile OS provider.”
Microsoft can also play on fears that Google will give priority to Motorola, despite any claims of independence by Google. After all, since Google owns Motorola, they stand to directly benefit from Motorola gaining marketshare (over other Android based phones such as HTC, LG and Samsung).
Outside of what I’ll call techies, most consumers really don’t have any attachment to specific mobile operating systems at the moment. They are getting phones that visually appeal to them from the hardware perspective. This could change, but for the time being, average consumers don’t place a value on mobile OS’s when making purchasing decisions.
If smart-phone manufacturers split mobile OS integration among their products, they stand to gain leverage over both Google and Microsoft. Up until now, going with the leading independent mobile OS (Android) made sense. However, things have changed.
If I were Microsoft, I might be willing to even pay the smart-phone manufacturers to use the Windows mobile OS over Android. This would be the perfect moment to strike. It would weaken a competitor and broaden the usage of Microsoft’s ad network. Having a Bing app pre-loaded onto mobile apps by default would also weaken Google’s search monopoly. If users find the search results useful, they might also be more inclined to use Bing on their personal computers as well.
The opportunity is there, I’m interested to see if Microsoft takes advantage of it.
digithoughts liked this
working-with-software reblogged this from kennethto-blog-blog
kennethto-blog-blog posted this