The ggogle-Motorola deal has received support from the EU and FTC, so it will be just a few months now until the deal is complete. This means that Microsoft and apple won't get to be asses anymore with respect to their patent wars.

Uh, google bought Motorola and this Will soon allow them to defend android against Microsoft and apple. The manufacturers currently pay msft about $5 for every smartphone bc msft collects patent royalties. When google can put a stop to this, it will reassure the manufacturers and let them make more money. The deal will also let google make things like set top boxes, to further their googleTV effort. As far as msft goes, I'm not saying that this will be the begininning of the end for them, but it will definitely make things even harder for their mobile business moving forward. The only question mark is if google can streamline Motorola some so that it would make some profit.

a google-branded phone?... I'll buy it day 1.

Sweet!

My first 2 cell phones ever were Motorolas, and I love Google...so the combination is great for me! I'll definitely buy a Google/Motorola phone when my Samsung Galaxy dies (might be a couple years)

What stopped you from getting the G1?

Google buying Motorola will not stop anyone from litigating against Android. The majority of their patents are based on old analog technology that is no longer used today. In fact, not long ago the ITC made an initial ruling stating that Motorola is infringing on a very important Microsoft patent: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9222906/ITC_favors_Microsoft_in_Motorola_tiff

Happy for Google but it won't change Androids patent woes much at all.

Google buying Motorola won't somehow make Microsofts patents invalid.

Only thing Motorola patents are good for to Google is finding some old telecommunication patent which they can use to counter sue Apple. The whole...drop your lawsuit and we will drop ours...strategy. They really can't do much to Microsoft's patents as Motorola doesn't have any patents that they can go after Windows Phone OS with.

Just who is being an ass with respect to patents?  Apple wants people to stop blatantly ripping off their stuff.  Microsoft is desperate for a piece of the action.  But Google?  They want to abuse open standards and charge usurious royalties on patents they didn't invent.  It sure feels like sometime around when Android started taking off, they traded "don't be evil" for "the ends justify the means".

http://fosspatents.blogspot.com/2012/02/google-tells-european-commission-on.html

Um, Motorola has been one of the intellectual leaders of telecom, and the consensus perception is that this will greatly help google's patent defense, as googorola can sue wp7 manufacturers like Nokia now.