Google has already made its mark on the software sector, its Android operating system is already used by billions of people around the world. However, the company has been trying to get into the hardware arena as well. Today, in all cash deal of a whopping 1.1 billion US dollars to HTC, Google has renewed its efforts to get back in the phone hardware business.
The deal will give Google a non-exclusive access to all of HTC’s phone patents as well as the transfer of over 2000 employees who worked on the Pixel division. The patent deal enforces the rumor that the upcoming pixels will have the Edge Squeeze feature. This number is equal to a fifth of HTC’s total workforce. The 2000-people team was responsible for Pixel phone that the Taiwanese company made in collaboration with the search giant. Google said that the move would help them have a hardware department that would bring innovation to android resulting to better competition against Apple.
If this information sounds familiar, it is because Google had a similar deal with Motorola six years ago. The only difference is that they bought the entire mobile division which led to a much bigger figure of $12.5 billion. After the deal, amazing phones such as Moto X and Moto G were released with Moto Maker website to customize the flagship. Unfortunately, the phone sales were not as Google expected and it led them to sell the company to Lenovo for $3billion only 2 years after acquiring it for 4 times the price.
Google has since learnt from their mistakes and have decided to minimize risk by buying only a portion of HTC. The Taiwanese company will continue manufacturing smartphones even after the deal has been approved by regulatory bodies, so freight not HTC fans, you will continue enjoying those products. In fact, HTC said that it is actively preparing for its next flagship, maybe a HTC U11 successor or a completely new line perhaps; let’s wait and see. In the meantime, Google is planning to launch the new Pixel devices on October 4th, the Pixel 2 is said to be made by HTC while the bigger Pixel 2 XL by LG.