Google Says Motorola Won’t Be Favoured

Google’s executive chairman Eric Schmidt has denied that it will favour Motorola when it completes its takeover of the American mobile company’s smartphone business.

Speaking in South Korea, Schmidt claimed that Motorola will be run independently and reassured Android licensees that the mobile operating system will remain open. The statement was clearly designed to reassure Asian smartphone vendors including South Korea’s Samsung, which has overtaken Apple as the world’s number one smartphone maker, at least until figures from Apple’s iPhone 4S are in.

No favouritism

“In general, with all of our partners, we told them that the Motorola deal will close and we will run it sufficiently and independently, that it will not violate the openness of Android,” Schmidt said, according to a report by Reuters.

The comments were made during a tour of Asia, which has already included South Korea, , home to Samsung, maker of Google’s new flagship device, the Galaxy Nexus. Schmidt will also visit Taiwan, home of HTC, maker of Android phones. Both companies have been the subject of legal action by Apple over alleged patent infringements.

Google announced the £7.8 billion takeover of Motorola’s phone division in August. The buyout is believed to be fuelled partly by the search giant’s desire to acquire Motorola’s patents amid the escalating number of lawsuits over intellectual property leveled against Android manufacturers.

Android has become the most popular mobile operating system in the world but the posthumous biography of Steve Jobs revealed that he regarded it as a stolen product and vowed to “right this wrong” even if it took him till his dying breath.

However Schmidt declined to comment on a book that was written after Job’s death, stating “Steve is a fantastic human being and someone who I miss very dearly. As a general comment, I think most people would agree that Google is a great innovator and I would also point out that the Android effort started before the iPhone effort.”