Google will run Motorola 'independently' to keep Android firms happy

Eric Schmidt looks to reassure Asian manufacturers during South Korea visit

Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt has revealed that the company will run Motorola as an independent business unit to reassure Android partners such as Samsung and HTC that the $12.5bn deal will not affect their use of Android.

Schmidt said during a visit to South Korea, home to Samsung, the most successful Android handset manufacturer, that running Motorola as a separate entity is part of Google's desire to keep Android as an open platform.

"With all of our partners, we told them 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," Schmidt is reported by several sources as saying.

Samsung was also the first vendor to launch a device on the Ice Cream Sandwich Android 4.0 update, in another move that appeared calculated to reassure Samsung that the Motorola deal will not affect its use of Android.

Analysts had warned that Google's purchase of Motorola could play into the hands of Microsoft by making Windows Phone 7 a more enticing proposition, but Google appears to be working hard to avoid such a situation.

Schmidt also sought to quell criticism that Android ripped off the iPhone's iOS platform, going as far as to suggest that Google's operating system was in development before Apple's.

"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," he said.

The comments come after revelations in the recently released Steve Jobs biography that the former Apple chief executive was outraged at what he saw as a blatant copy of iOS and threatened "thermonuclear war" with Google over the issue.

Schmidt said in a letter sent on Monday to senators investigating Google for alleged anti-competitive behaviour that Apple's Siri voice technology is a "significant development" in the search market that could affect Google's dominance.