Electronista is reporting that Eric Schnidt has said that the Motorola Mobile acquisition was not just for patents, but also to give Google an organic ability to make its own Android phones. As you can imagine, this suggests the brief era of Android as an open and vendor-neutral phone platform is going to end; Moto Mobile would have a clear inside track over other Android licensees like Samsung and HTC.
While the chairman wouldn’t discuss it, leaks have hinted that Google was aiming for a more iPhone-style integration than what Google can do so far. Nexus phones, and likely the upcoming Droid Prime or Nexus Prime, have Google’s influence on the hardware but ultimately put much of the control in the partner’s hands. Google could both make its own Nexus as well as any tier of phone it wanted.
