I suspect other phone manufacturers will be less eager to invest in Android as a platform. Symbian's ownership was a huge problem back in the day. We will see a repeat of the drama I am afraid.
Nokia's problems have nothing to do with Windows Phone. They're still offering lots of Symbian handsets [http://www.nokia.com/us-en/products/products/] to compete head to head with iOS, Android, and WP7. A renaissance for the brick format or Symbian was no more likely a year ago than it is today.
For me, it's hard to see how betting on a MeeGo app ecosystem would have given them a growing market share over the long term.
Android rose because it was cheap and available as an alternative to iOS. Google realized a first mover advantage in the "not Apple" segment of the market. Now with Motorola Mobility purchase, they have the opportunity to bring more of the profits back in house.
I suspect that Google's long term hardware strategy, if they have one, is to go head to head with Nokia in the developing world by deploying the next generation of feature phones and collecting data in rapidly developing markets like Africa.
I think the implied alternative was Android, not MeeGo.
All the other Android vendors license Windows for some other area of their business. These two do not and Microsoft has no leverage to force them. (Yes, I know about Microsoft suing Motorola and Motorola suing Microsoft back).
Amazon may have the strength to open its own app store for the Kindle. But it can only do so because the Kindle is just a means to a purpose, which is consuming stuff from Amazon's store.
Apple may have the strength to build their own alternative to Google Maps, but they are Apple.
On the other hand, did anybody here ever used the Samsung App Store? (http://www.samsungapps.com). I didn't think so. And what's an Android phone without Google's apps and Google's Play? It's just a shitty smartphone.
Actually I think it's great news that Google buys Motorola, because maybe, just maybe, these phone manufacturers will drop those silly enhancements and start getting in line with the official updates.
This isn't a surprise for anyone, though. They have been working towards this purchase for a while, so if any of the manufacturers were likely to baulk at it, they already would have done so.
Here's hoping that google puts out some great handsets, and makes this a real game-changing move.
I don't see how this is going to change.
This is purely for their own phones too, not mentioning the parts they produce which go into others (original iphone processor etc.)
Mostly I think Google's gunning for the carriers at this point. Carriers seem to keep enjoying getting in Google's way.