From the Google Blog and other sources, Google is to buy Motorola Mobility for $12.5bn. Naturally, Larry Page’s note bangs on about how great Motorola is and how terribly unfair everyone’s being regarding so-called “anti-competitive patent attacks on Android”, along with, laughably, saying the “acquisition will not change our commitment to run Android as an open platform”.

Like hell.

Google has already been tightening its Android ship and this will further continue to do that. At best for Googorola’s competitors, they’re now going to be competing against a company that has the potential to produce something Apple-like in its integration of hardware and software. Bar the low-end market (unless Googorola goes for that too), they’re screwed if the new superteam gets that right.

But I think this acquisition is good news for everyone aside from existing Android vendors. It should ensure better Android devices in the future and also give Apple a kick up the bum regarding improving iOS and iOS devices. It’s also further vindication that Apple’s got the business model right: control the hardware and the software and you create a better user experience. HP gets this. Google now, seemingly, is starting to understand this. All we need now is another big press release that Microsoft has bought or merged with Nokia and we can look forward to a hugely entertaining scrap as the smartphone and tablet vendors aim to better each-other.

Update: Note, of course, that this could also be a patents land-grab, which would be a massively missed opportunity for Google. I’m being more optimistic than that, though. I think Google’s starting to understand that its ‘open’ system is merely open to being screwed up by vendors, and so it wants to put a stop to that. If not, that shows a stunning lack of vision. However, quotes by Android partners saying they are behind the deal mean nothing. Their businesses largely rest (at present) on Android’s success, so they were hardly going to respond with “screw you, Google”, although there is also some truth in this acquisition potentially safeguarding Google and Android to some extent against the Apple/Microsoft patent threat.