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Samsung has just announced that they’ve entered into a global patent agreement with Google. While Samsung doesn’t specify the number of patents in the agreement, they do say the patents in question cover “a broad range of technologies and business areas”. More importantly, both Google and Samsung will cross license all the patents they’ll create during the next 10 years.
The obvious question here is why? Samsung builds chips, screens, and batteries. Google is a search engine. Eldar Murtazin, the Russian journalist who owns and operators Mobile-Review published a list of five things he’s been told about the news.
1. Samsung get not only patents from Google but also secure own development. More and more Google play edition smarts from Sammy
— Eldar Murtazin (@eldarmurtazin) January 27, 2014
2. Samsung will stop developing Tizen for smartphones, that's own decision, Google doesn't care about it. TouchWiz aren't in focus
— Eldar Murtazin (@eldarmurtazin) January 27, 2014
3. TouchWiz will evolve in extra features – some of them will be an integral part of future android versions. Others will get it for $
— Eldar Murtazin (@eldarmurtazin) January 27, 2014
4. Google won't be competitor in hardware for Samsung or any other brand. Moto is under question in that landscape. They will be reprofile
— Eldar Murtazin (@eldarmurtazin) January 27, 2014
5. Android will be closed/restricted from use by some companies like Microsoft – looks like Normandy will be killed by google/Samsung
— Eldar Murtazin (@eldarmurtazin) January 27, 2014
My interpretation of the above tweets is that both of these companies recognize that they need each other. Google can’t become a serious hardware player with just Motorola. And Samsung can’t make software to save their lives, so it’s best to acknowledge that and just shake hands with Google.
What does this patent agreement means for other Android handset makers like Sony, HTC, LG, and so on and so forth? This is where I’m left confused. I’m reminded of the funny situation that Nokia and Microsoft found themselves in. Microsoft insisted that anyone could make a Windows Phone, yet it was Nokia that ended up selling 80% of all Windows Phones. Samsung doesn’t have 80% market share in the Android space, but it’s definitely a big enough number that the company probably gets special treatment from Mountain View.
Watch this space, people are still digging around to find out what’s what.
