Motorola hasn't even gotten Android ICS yet, Eric Schmidt reiterates Google will keep it independent
During his current tour in Asia, Google's Eric Schmidt said for the umpteenth time that Motorola will continue to work independently from Google despite the acquisition, trying to dissuade the persistent rumors that its handsets and tablets will receive preferential treatment.
"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 … we're not going to change in any material way the way we operate", said Eric Schmidt today.
These words were uttered in South Korea, the home turf of Samsung and LG, which are the world's second and third largest cell phone manufacturers, respectively.
Motorola chimed in its turn, via its VP of Software Development Ruth Hennigar, saying that it hasn't even gotten the source code of Android Ice Cream Sandwich yet, let alone started to do something with it. It will be up to six months, she said, before ICS becomes widely available on devices.
We know this is supposed to quell the rumors about preferential treatments, but it's not something that owners of Motorola handsets and tablets will be very happy to hear, while waiting for their respective updates to the latest and greatest.
It is interesting to follow how Google's first huge hardware acquisition will unfold, but let's not get ahead of ourselves before the deal has closed completely next year.
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