Do the carriers object to Google and Motorola getting hitched?

Courtesy of droidmatters.com

I believe the line goes a little something like this. If there is anyone who object to these two being wed, please speak now or forever hold your peace. Now take it from someone who is married. The forever hold your peace part is rarely followed. Most marriages today would probably have a lot more civility in them if others practiced forever holding their peace, but this is not about people and marriages good or bad. This is about joining in matrimony on the corporate end of the stick and I can tell you there are at minimum four wireless carriers who are currently NOT holding their peace whether you hear them or not. The following is the order in which they refuse to hold their peace from most hostile to least hostile.

More after the jump
Verizon Wireless
AT&T
Sprint
T-Mobile

For the carriers there's a lot at stake here whether you believe it or not.

Unfortunately the carriers aren't only in the business of providing and selling phone service. Yes, this is very unfortunate as they are also in the business of trying to make money in areas they completely lack talent. With examples like VCast for Verizon Wireless and Sprint ID for Sprint, the carriers are attempting to run a ringtone and apps suite business. I understand providing the masses with unlimited nights and weekend minutes can be costly but with millions of subscribers the bottom line is not exactly in a world of hurt. As a matter of fact profit wise times are great for the carriers, even for a lower end competitor like Sprint.

However, if you make devices and your name rhymes with LG, Samsung & HTC. The carriers control and meddling into the software areas of the phone has never made you happy. It's down right annoying. You make a device and announce it's specs and performance benchmarks and abilities with pride only to have the carriers tell you the junk they would like to throw in the truck prior to the phone hitting the showroom. You as the manufacturer can kick and scream all you want but it doesn't matter. The carriers control what hits the shelves. They control the competition here in the good ole US of A.

Verizon Wireless has been the leader in anti-mobile freedom. If they aren't charging you for it, it's likely you don't and won't have it, whatever it may be. Just look at the launch of the original iPhone. Whether you believe it or not the deal with Apple's preferred carrier at the time, Verizon, fell apart because Apple refused to allow Verizon to bloat up the phone with VCast content. Apple also refused to put a carrier stamp on the back of the phone. Ultimately Apple won the battle and a huge one it was. Giving in to the concept of carrier control over every single little thing would have destroyed the mobile device game by now. Google tried to take matters even further with the Nexus One. The idea was to sell a device exclusively online, that could be used on all carriers without the help of the carriers; creating true mobile device freedom. There were several problems. The only carrier to be a fan of this was T-Mobile and considering their 4th place position in US market share I can understand why. They were the only carrier to offer a subsidy for a purchase of a Nexus One. AT&T allowed the phone's use on it's network but they have no choice. I could make a mobile phone for a GSM network and it will work as long as my sim card has service, well if I knew how to make phones I guess. The Nexus One never made it to Sprint or Verizon due to many complexities including but not limited to carrier cooperation, CDMA network incompatibilities and Google's inability to work on getting a massive amount of network agreements in place.

Google owning Motorola means freedom. This deal strengthens Google's hand at the table. This moves them a step closer towards Apple status. The carriers will not all of the sudden decide to leave 30% of the market on the table. Will you burn your 401K and IRA? No? I didn't think so. All the same the carriers will not throw cash in the fireplace. Not because it's not smart, but because they love money. Lots of it. This leaves Google in a very good position to make the phones they finally want to make and with that they can leave the carriers out of the software lab and tell the bloatware to stay on the sidelines for the foreseeable future. Game changer indeed. Even with this don't expect the carriers to forever hold their peace. They never have and never will. If they can't win this battle they will find a way around the battlefield and it will be onward march to the next battle for the dollars and cents in your wallet.