Google doesn’t want to do what Motorola Mobility does (sell phones); it wants the company because it’s got a big heap of patents—seventeen thousand, apparently, with seven thousand more under review. And this is why today’s news is profoundly depressing.

I can sense that other Android OEMs, such as Samsung and HTC, would be rushing to find an alternative mobile OS, and Windows Phone 7 looks the most attractive thus far.

The smartphone landscape would be exciting to watch as upheavals are really threatening competitors without their own mobile OSes.