Nokia CEO speaks out against Google’s Motorola purchase

By Jeffrey Van Camp August 18, 2011

Nokia CEO Stephen Elop (May 2011) — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Google is planning to buy Motorola for $12.5 billion and not everybody is happy about it. Nokia CEO Stephen Elop, who signed a major partnership deal with Microsoft earlier this year, has spoken out against the Google acquisition. His fears are exactly the same fears Windows Phone partners would have had when Nokia and Microsoft entered into their multi-billion dollar arrangement, which gives Nokia certain abilities and access that other Windows Phone manufacturers will not have.

“If I happened to be someone who was an Android manufacturer or an operator, or anyone with a stake in that environment, I would be picking up my phone and calling certain executives at Google and say, ‘I see signs of danger ahead.’ The very first reaction I had was very clearly the importance of the third ecosystem and the importance of the partnership that we announced on February 11, it is more clear than ever,” said Elop while speaking at a seminar in Helinski (quote via Phandroid).

In our opinion, this is pretty much a case of the pot calling the kettle black. We don’t know how Google will manage Motorola, but the company says it mainly purchased the company for its patents and plans to run Motorola somewhat separately from the rest of the company. While we don’t know if Google will actually do that, it would make no sense for the company to abandon Android as an open platform when that is the main reason that it has become so popular in the first place. This situation is very similar to the criticism Microsoft faced when it inked a major, near exclusive, partnership with Nokia. The only major difference is that Android is the dominant platform in the smartphone market and Windows Phone is a distant fourth.

In any case, we look forward to Nokia and Microsoft’s upcoming Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango) announcements soon. We’re quite excited to see what the companies have cooked up.

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