Google's sale of Motorola to Lenovo for $2.91 billion may appear to mark the close of a dark chapter in the search giant history -- the failure to succeed in the hardware business.
Despite that apparent failure, though, it appears that Google comes out of the sale in strong shape, with more control of Android development, a slew of Motorola patents and a cutting-edge Motorola research lab
Experts said the deal would also improve the somewhat rocky relationship between Google and Samsung, which sells a ton of smartphones running the Google-made Android operating system. But it appears that Google had already fully fixed the Samsung problems prior to the sale of Motorola
Computerworld offers a Tip of the Hat to Forbes contributor Gordon Kelly for explaining how Google used its ownership of Motorola -- along with some hardball tactics -- to get Samsung to stop customizing Android on its way to replacing it with the open source Tizen OS.
Kelly's story, How Google Used Motorola To Smack Down Samsung -- Twice, theorizes that Samsung signed the patent deal to avoid price war with Motorola. Two days later, the surprise Motorola deal was announced, and Samsung was left with an agreement not to mess with Android's design, undercutting its efforts push only apps that run on a customized OS, as well as the plan to migrate to Tizen.
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