Google is apparently ready to buy HTC
cnbc.com
cnbc.com
I expect this is Google trying to prevent the Android market from becoming a Samsung monopsony. They're half the market, and everyone else is less than 5% (except Hauwei, which is 6%). Given the profits available, I bet half of these businesses are in danger of being shut down every year.
Another thought is that Apple has a huge advantage in that they make really low-level investments in hardware, especially the camera and security devices. Google would probably be willing to make those investments and license them to the other OEMs, but to really be good at it they'll need to be a hardware company themselves.
Lastly, and I think this is less likely, it's just my inner fanboy talking, but I hope Google makes really good phones and makes them Project Fi exclusives. If they can create an anchor phone that draws people to Google Fi, then Google has more leverage to negotiate lower prices from the wireless companies. Anything that take Verizon down a couple pegs is OK by me.
What a silly statement. Samsung's smartphone division reported profits of 3.6 Billion USD in their Q2 2017 financials. To claim that 3.6 Billion in 1 quarter is barely profitable is beyond ridiculous.
As for the second largest smartphone OEM - Huawei:
As we look at the overall revenue for Huawei during the first half of the year [2017], the company was able to bring in $42.04 billion, at an operating margin of 11%.
https://www.xda-developers.com/huawei-releases-financial-rep...
For example, they put in place a firewall to ensure that Motorola wouldn't have any advantages over other Android manufacturers. I don't expect them to do that again.
That being said, major acquisitions are hard and I expect it to fail once again. But they'll mostly make different mistakes rather than the same ones they made last time.
Actually that sounds good, we could do with a third viable handset OS, but that's a digression and at this point a bit of a fantasy. They have nowhere else to go.
Back in the early days of iOS and Android the consensus seemed to be that the smartphone OSes were pretty much done. To compete with iOS all you had to do was match it's features, or catch up, and once you had it was pretty much all over. Since then Apple and Google have constantly found compelling new features for the OSes almost every year. Apple is sinking billions into the development of iOS, just look at what they're doing just in the area of health[1], and there is clear blue water in terms of quality and features[2] between it and Android, and that gap is increasing.
Google makes most of it's money in mobile off the iOS platform, yet is investing hugely in Android development and making a pittance out of it. Not only is that unsustainable, but if they really want to compete with Apple they need to dramatically increase their investment in Android. They only way they can justify doing that is to actually start making significant revenue off Android. The only way to do that is to sell their own handsets, differentiate them from competing Android handset vendors, command a decent profit margin and grab significant market share.
[1] https://www.cultofmac.com/316559/abc-news-goes-inside-apples...
[2] Super robust and secure XPC; Superior power management; Custom development tools, languages and hardware-software integration with things like Metal and the motion co-processor; High quality health and fitness tracking; VRKit; Highly consistent calibration of sensors between devices, vital for precision applications like VR; All this is arguable in the details, sure, but the fact that Apple is spending hugely on this backed by blockbuster revenues isn't and Google can't realistically match that just for the heck of it. They need a revenue stream to back it up.
So no, Google do not make tens of billions a year off Android. They may possibly make a profit off of it of a few bn a year, but that's about the best we can say. On the other hand they pay Apple $3bn a year just to be the default search engine in Mobile Safari. That's how big the gulf is in the mobile market between them and Apple. They make about 4x as much money off iOS as they do off their own operating system. If I was running Google there's no way I'd consider that acceptable, because all that iOS revenue is at Apple's discretion.
Android is too big. The oems are too invested. They need Google. Google on the other hand, could flip the switch one day and say that they do not need them anymore.
Pretty good deal IMO.
As they were doing that I remember thinking "these phones don't make much sense for Motorola in terms of generating a profit, but they make perfect sense for Google in terms of blanketing the world with Android phones."
I'd say Google was quite happy with what they were able to do while they had Motorola.
It's likely and possible that the patents were the primary purpose for the acquisition. But they put too much money & effort into the handset business to suggest that they never intended to make a go of it.
In a scale that big, "2.5 years later" counts as immediate.
Google need to decide what the heck their smartphone hardware strategy actually is.
TechAltar on YouTube provides a very good explanation of why Samsung (and probably other phone manufacturers) are cautious of Android[1]. This is especially true when Google acts as a hardware phone manufacturer.
The summary of the argument (from memory) is that Google provides Android to hardware phone manufacturers, and it doesn't compete with them in the hardware space. Google owning Moto (and now HTC?), makes Google a direct competitor with hardware phone manufacturers -- which you could argue are its main customers in the phone market. Google can give Moto (HTC?) unfair advantages because it owns/controls Android; even if it's not done maliciously (e.g. having access to Android source before it becomes public).
Only if it fails. I'm sure this is making Android phone manufacturers nervous but what are their options? Essentially, Samsung would need to revive its mobile OS platform and build a competing ecosystem. That's a huge gamble that's already failed multiple times.
It strikes me that it's more likely that they'll take the same dichotomous approach as they do with selling chips to Apple. My guess is that Google are assuming the same.
I may be out of date, but I hated the last samsung phone I had because they did not realize this and subjected their users to touchwhizz.
The also need to improve at supporting their software and keeping android up to date.
Google deciding to change something is one of Samsung's biggest corporate risks since they're so dependent on them with the phone business.
There's talk of spinning off the Vive portion of HTC.
Besides, the Vive is based on Valve's tech, HTC is mainly handling manufacturing only.
Would it matter when "an Android phone" means a Samsung phone 9 times out of 10 in Western markets
When an average American comes to Best Buy to buy a phone, he does not deliberate over things as abstract to him as OS of a phone. He sees an Apple phone, a Samsung phone, and a random Chinese phone.
That's been interesting to HTC to now. Doesn't mean they can't make a premium phone to showcase Google's tech, but just that their flagship attempts haven't moved the needle compared to the incumbents (and more than likely fair to say the Pixel hasn't either).
And, well... HTC was the contract manufacturer for the Pixel... so there's that.
Let's be honest - the phone business of HTC is dead.
They don't make good products, they were just lucky and had an early start in the smartphone business.
Anyone with a Google Pixel.
As other said, they are after the VR stuff, and any sale will contain that bit. They will let phones run a bit, then either sell it at a bargain to other manufacturer ( Lenovo? ) or let it slowly ( or abruptly) die.
[1] the other Motorola is doing just fine. https://www.motorolasolutions.com/
Also, note that now they have the Pixel instead of the Nexus line, which is supposedly in house designed by currently isn't.