Motorola makes other devices besides phones that use Windows. Why is Microsoft suing one of their own partners? Do they want Motorola to drop Windows all together? Dell, Acer, Symbol, Samsung etc. will all pay attention to this. Microsoft to partners: "In the future, as a Microsoft partner, we will dictate to you the OS your product uses or else we will sue you! We don't care if your hardware requirements cost more using our software."
Why not sue Google directly. Apple didn't, Oracle did. It doesn't matter if Android is open source or not, if Google violated your patents then sue Google. I'm not suing the DOT if my automobile has a flaw. I'm suing the source.
This reeks of extortion. Why isn't Microsoft targeting other Android phones? Oh, the manufacturer also supplies Windows based phones. I think the DOJ needs to re-open the Monopoly case again, specifically the section that details how Microsoft once used office/windows pricing to abuse the hardware manufacturers. Hey IBM, you owe Microsoft $500 million for Windows licenses because you also provide OS/2. Dell only owes us a $100 million for the same amount of licenses.
Those patents listed are weak at best except for the FAT one. Hey Microsoft, users have been synchronizing network data since before 300 baud modems. Rsync pre-dates ActiveSync, and I have scheduled a meeting using a (Yes a) Motorola beeper back in 1995
Motorola owns a shit-load of patents too. Is Microsoft doing the right thing? My inner Yoda says: The patent wars they have begun.
The technology group at Microsoft and the legal/marketing group at Microsoft are not on the same corporate page: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/10/strange-bedfellows-eff-apache-back-microsoft-in-patent-dispute.ars
Microsoft isn't interested in cloud computing. Instead of offering services to Android users (Office, Silverlight, .net etc), they are more interested in protecting the Windows hegemony. This means they have no plan for providing internet services to non-Microsoft clients wanting to use/subscribe to Microsoft cloud applications
Lets discuss..
Enjoy,