I'm sitting at HTC in Taipei, contemplating Google's announced intention to purchase Motorola's handset business. I think it's probably a mistake.
Apple is the only company that makes iPhones, RIM is the only company that makes Blackberrys and HP is only company that makes Palm WebOS phones.
Android has been phenomenally successful -- selling 48% of the smartphones worldwide last quarter to Apple's 19% -- because Google doesn't complete in the handset market with the vendors who are using Android.
Google claims that the purchase could make the Android eco-system stronger. However, if Google starts making their own handsets, HTC, Samsung, LG, Sony Erickson, and other companies that are currently betting big on Android might think twice about being so reliant on Google. The winner could be Microsoft, who would be the only mobile platform vendor left that doesn't make their own handsets.
Nokia (which is still the #1 Smartphone vendor in Europe) has already decided to downplay their proprietary platform (Symbian) and focus on Windows Phone. They are going to use Windows Phone to reenter the U.S. Smartphone market as well.
I can easily see some of the other vendors put more emphasis on Windows Phone if Google goes through with this.
We'll see.
