We’ve all seen the world of mobile technology explode in recent years. Everything’s getting faster, better, and smaller with every attempt and with models like the 4G Phone Samsung Exhibit, it’s become a big business that’s finding its way into our huge economy. It’s a field where progress is measured in gigabytes and features and companies, all over the globe, are at each other’s throats trying to gain any competitive edge over the other. This was apparent at the auctioning off of Nortel’s mobile patents. If you’re wondering how much that edge is worth, well it’s apparently worth 4.5 billion dollars.
Nortel Networks, the former Canadian high-tech giant was an industry leader for years and the rest of its patents was just sold off to several different companies. It ended up making 4.5 billion in the auction, which is far higher than the previous opening bids that were just shy of a billion. Nortel’s chief strategy office, George Riedel, stated, “The size and dollar value for this transaction is unprecedented, as was the significant interest in the portfolio among major companies around the world.” The company used to be a leader of research and development in the telecom industry but no longer. The company had over six thousand different patents that it was holding onto but all of the other companies that currently have a stake in the mobile game wanted to acquire them.
The company consortium members buying up pieces of Nortel included the likes of Sony, Research in Motion, Ericsseon, and others but the big winners came out between Apple and Microsoft who grabbed the lion’s share of the patents. Google didn’t do quite as well as it wanted to, which is a big problem for the search engine giant whose been going after Apple in recent years. This was a big deal for the mobile device industry. It was said that, “The Nortel patent portfolio reflects the heritage of more than 100 years of its R&D activities and includes some essential patents in telecommunications and other industries.” Everyone wanted these patents and this auction marked the last major asset to be sold off by Nortel and the strength of the sale illustrates how contentious the power struggle is right now between these companies.
We’re likely to see a lot of similar acquisitions and attempts as Apple, Google, Microsoft, and others try to one-up each other. It’s not clear as to who will come out on top. Either way, this auction presents, to the parities involved, a potential turning point for dominance in the mobile device and technology market. It doesn’t really matter to the average person who wins out in the end. Whoever gains the top spot, the competition is going to be big and when companies compete, innovation happens. When innovation happens, we all generally win out. Smartphones are cheaper than ever and it’s only because there’s a constant drive to improve efficiency and cost. It’s a win-win situation all around.
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