With Google buying Motorola, there is a lot of speculation on what would this mean for Android handsets from Motorola, especially the Nexus series from Google getting some Moto love. Google claims to be paying a 63% premium over Motorola’s stock value and that means a cost of $12 billion, they sure have some vision here and not just a patent defense.
For the ones expecting a Google Nexus device made by Motorola before year end, there is a bad news and a good news. Motorola/Google have announced that the deal is expected to close by end 2011 or early 2012, which would mean post Ice-cream Sandwich release of Android. That would also mean that the next Nexus phone would be out before Motorola is Google’s property. Another MUCH needed reality check is the fact that making hardware isn’t a 2-4 month job, Google can’t plan a Nexus phone with Motorola today and launch it before the holiday season / Ice-cream sandwich release. This puts the Moto-Nexus rumors to rest.
But then the good news, Motorola was the first one to come out with Eclair (Android 2.1), first one to come out with a Honeycomb tablet, and that raises hope that Google and Motorola have been working on the next Nexus device already. We also had a ton of rumors suggesting a Nexus phone from Motorola. So independent of the fact that Google is acquiring Motorola, engineers across these two might well be giving final touches to the next Nexus device 🙂
Yes the wait for the holiday season just got a lot more exciting.
